Shah rekindles hope for firm steps on Kashmir

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 27

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah’s two-day visit to Jammu from April 29 has rekindled the hope for peace in the turbulent Kashmir valley as the party leadership has promised to initiate some concrete steps in J&K.

Shah today said the government would pursue both military and diplomatic means to restore normalcy in the Kashmir valley. The BJP leader stated this in an interview with a television channel.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and other Kashmir-centric parties have already been pressing for a dialogue with all stakeholders to break the stalemate.

Although interaction with any Kashmir-centric group is not in Shah’s itinerary, he is likely make some positive announcement in this regard. The BJP leader will be spending two days in Jammu. “On Saturday evening, Shah is going to address prominent citizens of Jammu and is likely to make some important announcements,” a senior BJP leader said, adding that the party leadership might succumb to the pressure tactics of separatists.

On Wednesday, Shah had stated in Kolkota that his party would give a thought to Mehbooba Mufti’s proposal for counselling youths caught in the vortex of violence in the state. He had announced that the BJP team, which dealt with the policies on Kashmir, would sit together and discuss the issue.

Highly placed sources said some of the members of the team were already camping at Srinagar for the last one week to explore the possibilities of opening dialogue with “genuine” groups, which were ready to come forward to sideline the troublemakers.