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Kashmir : Sonia visits border |
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Asserting that peace process with Pakistan would be strengthened, Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said the government would take every step to resolve the Kashmir problem through dialogue and reconciliation.
The peace process with Pakistan would not only continue but also be strengthened to establish peace in the region, she said addressing a public meeting at Kargil.
“The UPA government will take every step to resolve the Kashmir issue through dialogue and reconciliation,” said Gandhi on her first visit to Kargil after the UPA government assumed office. The meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session was a step towards establishing peace in the region, she pointed out.
Defence attaches say the situation has improved
The military attaches of 33 countries who concluded a visit to Jammu and Kashmir last week felt the ground situation in the state had improved, officials have said.
The diplomats from the US, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan, Italy and several European and Far Eastern countries arrived in Srinagar and met senior Indian Army officers, including the commander of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps.
During a meeting with the Governor, Lt. Gen. (retired) S.K. Sinha at Raj Bhavan, the Australian military attache said he had noticed a marked improvement in the security situation in the summer capital Srinagar as compared to a few years ago.
“Palatial houses have come up in the periphery of Srinagar and there is greater evidence of normalcy returning,” the Australian military officer said, wanting to know the governor’s views in this matter.
Sinha said the situation had been going back to normal for some time, notwithstanding incidents of violence. “A marked improvement is discernible for about two years,” he said, exuding confidence about the “situation becoming fully normal soon”.
Sinha said the “winds of peace have begun to blow across the subcontinent and the urge for peace is continuing”. The governor referred to tourist arrivals in Kashmir increasing from 28,000 in 2002 to 270,000 in the first nine months of 2004.
Militant violence
Less than a week after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed survived a grenade attack in Anantnag district of South Kashmir while filing his nomination papers for the Pahalgam Assembly bypoll, militants shot dead a Congress leader and his bodyguard in the same area. A local Congress leader, Mohammad Yusuf Bhat, was driving through a crowded locality when two gunmen blocked his way. They shot him and his bodyguard, Mohammad Ashraf, from a close range. An aged pedestrian, Haji Abdul Aziz, who saw the shootout, died of cardiac arrest.
State Congress president Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed said Bhat enjoyed a lot of support among grassroots workers in Pahalgam. The Congress had fielded him in the 2002 Assembly elections but had later withdrawn his name on entering into an alliance with the People’s Democratic Party.
Violence has spiralled in Anantnag district in the wake of Mufti’s filing of nomination papers for the Pahalgam constituency. The J-K Chief Minister himself escaped a twin grenade attack near the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The militant outfit, Jamait-ul-Mujahideen, had claimed responsibility for the attack on the Chief Minister.
Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen shot dead a leader of a moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mohammad Rafiq Shah. Shah, who was president of J&K Peoples Liberation League was shot dead at his house in downtown Srinagar.
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