Sinha & Co appeal for Ramazan ceasefire

Azhar Qadri

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 22

A group of pro-dialogue activists, including a former foreign minister and a former intelligence chief, today urged the Central and the state governments, the militants and the protesters, to call for a ceasefire in the Kashmir valley during the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan.

The appeal was made by the Concerned Citizens’ Group (CCG) and its signatories included former Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, former RAW chief AS Dulat, former Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation Director Shushoba Bharve and 17 others.

“We strongly urge all concerned who are wielding the gun or are throwing stones to desist from doing so during the holy month,” the CCG said in a statement.

“We would like to appeal to the Central and state governments also to take a lead and declare that the security forces will respond only in cases of extreme provocation and in self-defence. Let there be no violence in Kashmir during Ramazan,” the group said.

The appeal has come at a time when there is a rise in encounters and clashes in the Valley in recent months.

The ceasefire, if it is announced, will be a second of its kind in the past two decades. In November 2000, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made a unilateral declaration of cessation of combat operations against militants in the state during Ramazan.

A member of the CCG told The Tribune that they had appealed to everyone in the region, “the militants, the stone-throwers and the men uniform.” “If it happens, it will provide a window to look for a way forward,” the CCG member said.

CCG members have made several trips to the Valley in recent months and met various “stakeholders,” including separatist leaders. They have been seeking a dialogue between the Central government and the separatists.

“We once again urge the Centre to use the opportunity to begin the dialogue with all stakeholders as promised in the Agenda for Alliance of the J&K Government,” it said.

The pro-dialogue group also made an appeal to Pakistan to “strictly observe the ceasefire” along the LoC that is in effect since 2003, but has been frequently violated in recent years.

It also asked Pakistan to “absolutely desist from aligning itself with forces that advocate militancy and terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.” “The call for peace cannot be unilateral,” it said.

The group in its statement further said the “suffering of people along the LoC and the International Border has crossed all limits and has become intolerable.”