SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, has called an all-party meeting here on Thursday to discuss the prevailing situation in Kashmir Valley.
An official spokesman here said that invitation for the meet has been extended to the leaders of all mainstream parties including ruling PDP-BJP combine and opposition National Conference, Congress, CPM, CPI, National Panthers Party, Democratic Party Nationalist and Peoples Democratic Front besides some others “to discuss the prevailing situation and the measures to be taken to restore peace and normalcy in the Valley”
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has asked for a “collective effort to get the State back on course”. She also asked the administration to reach out to the people to mitigate their sufferings.
“The Government is taking various measures to restore calm and it needs support of every section of the society to normalise the situation to end the miseries of the people,” Ms. Mufti said.
Meanwhile, separatists have termed as “ridiculous” the statement of the BJP government at the Centre that the ‘battle in Kashmir’ is between the country and the separatists and that violence fomented from across the border will not be tolerated.
They asserted that the ongoing turbulence in the Valley which has claimed the lives of more than 40 people in security forces’ firing and other actions against protesters and stone-hurling mobs is “direct consequence of Indian’s occupational and military approach towards the problem of Kashmir.”
Two killed in fresh clashes, toll rises to 43
Two persons including a woman were killed and seven others wounded when Army opened fire after allegedly being attacked with stones by an irate crowd at Qazigund, the gateway to Kashmir Valley from the south, on Monday evening.
With these fatal injuries, the death toll in security forces’ firings and other actions during the days of turbulence in the Valley has risen to 43.
The J&K government earlier during the day said that as many as 2,125 people have been injured in the incidents of violence reported till 11 am on Monday.
Police sources here said that the troops of 9 Rashtriya Rifles on board Aditya MVP, Casper or Casspir armoured vehicle in their use for providing increased protection during counterinsurgency operations, were attacked by the protesters with stones at Churhat, Qazigund.
The troops opened fire killing a protester Showkat Ahmed, 25, and a 45-year-old woman passerby Saida Begum and wounding seven other civilians, three of them critically, the sources said. Qazigund, 73-km south of here, is the last town along Sringar-Jammu highway within Kashmir Valley.
Also, in another incident Mohammad Khalil Band, the PDP MLA, suffered injuries when a mob pelted stones at his vehicle in Pulwama district on Sunday night.
