After Rajnath, all-party panel

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 25

“We want to make changes at the ground level… there is a need to restore peace,” said Rajnath Singh while interacting with the media at the end of his two-day visit to trouble-torn Kashmir today. He was accompanied by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

During his Kashmir visit, the second in a month, the Home Minister held meetings with 20 delegations comprising leaders of different political parties and prominent citizens. He said the Centre was grieved over the killings in the Valley, whether of protesting youths or jawans. He said he had told the CM to begin making preparations to receive an all-party delegation from Delhi to address the crisis.

The Home Minister reiterated that the government was “ready to talk to all who believe in Kashmiriyat, insaniyat and jamhuriyat.” He also referred to his message on the Twitter prior to his arrival here yesterday, invoking the Vajpayee mantra to reach out to the people of Kashmir.

On the use of pellet guns rendering hundreds of youths blind, the Home Minister hoped that soon an alternative would be found. During his earlier visit to the Valley, Rajnath had said a committee constituted to find an alternative to pellet guns would submit its recommendations in two months. “It has only been a month now. We expect the report in two-five days,” he said, adding that in 2010 it was believed that the pellets were “least harmful, but now it is felt that an alternative must be found”.

Pointing out that more than 4,500 security personnel had been injured during the current unrest, the Union Minister said they had been told to exercise “maximum restraint.”

He sought to identify those responsible for the turmoil and stressed the need to counsel the youth. “We can’t think of the future of Kashmir without the future of India,” he remarked.