Mehbooba meets PM to discuss Kashmir issue

Team Udayavani, Apr 24, 2017, 12:08 PM IST

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and pressed for dialogue. Mehbooba, who is under mounting attack in the face of fresh spurt in violence in Kashmir, briefed Modi on the prevailing situation in the state and the way forward. She told the prime minister that the Centre should seriously think about the welfare of the state.

“There is no option but to talk,” Mehbooba said. The PDP and the BJP, which are running the coalition government in the troubled state, are not on the same page on the issue of dealing with the growing trend of stone-pelting and this has led to friction between them. A BJP minister Chander Prakash Ganga recently advocated strong action, saying “traitors and stone-pelters should be treated with bullets”.

This comment drew the ire of the PDP, which said there was a”conspiracy” to keep trouble brewing in the Valley. “Such detestable remarks not only reflect the nauseous mentality of some extremist politicians in the state, but also expose the larger design of certain elements to provoke fresh trouble in Kashmir so that Kashmiris are pushed into perpetual educational and economicdis-empowerment,” senior PDP leader Peerzada Mansoor had said in a statement later.

Against the backdrop of the strains, BJP’s pointsman for Jammu and Kashmir Ram Madhav on Friday last held a meeting with senior PDP leader Haseeb Drabu in Jammu. Madhav then met Ganga, who later expressed regret for his controversial comment.