KL Report
SRINAGAR
Urging restoration of complete peace and ceasefire on the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) with Pakistan, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president, Mehbooba Mufti Monday said the two countries can’t ignore the yearning for peace in Jammu and Kashmir without pushing the region into more miseries.
Addressing a number of roadside meetings in Doru segment of her Islamabad parliamentary constituency, she said the PDP wants to make it clear to the national leadership and the government of Pakistan that the people of the state would resist through all democratic means the heightening of tension between the two countries.
Mehbooba said while temperatures are raised as a result of war room tactical games the only sufferers are the people of J&K. She said it is the life and property and sense of security of the people of J&K which are in the line of fire and her party would channelize and strongly register the opposition of the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to war mongering and use of weapons across the LoC and IB. She said every bullet or a mortar shell fired hits only the residents of this state whether they are on this side or the other.
Stressing the need for building a strong peace initiative from within the state she said more than a decade back the then Prime Minister, Vajpayee in an impressive display of statesmanship had opened a new chapter in the blood soaked history of India and Pakistan by responding to the urge for peace and dignified resolution during his historic visit to Srinagar. “The people of the state especially those living in border areas had experienced an entirely new found peace and environment of security after the 2003 ceasefire with Pakistan,” she said.
Mehbooba said till then the only demand of the people living in these areas was about providing shelter and bunkers but post the ceasefire these people who suffered for decades had picked up threads of life once again and tried to give themselves some stability in an environment of normalcy. The cross-LoC Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) had strengthened this feeling of normalcy and generated hope for future and the PDP remains committed to work for strengthening the peace initiatives and build on them to ensure durable peace which is not held hostage either by strategic hawks or trigger happy forces of any kind, she added. She expressed her grief at the loss of life in recent escalation along the borders.
