J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti pitches for talks with all parties

New Delhi: The Centre wants the Jammu and Kashmir government to play a more “proactive role” in maintaining law and order across the Valley, which has been seeing a spate of violent incidents, including stone-pelting by locals. The Centre’s concern was conveyed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti during her meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday.

Sources said that the general assessment was that there was need for tougher action by the J&K police which was not able to handle the agitations as a “professional force” and relied too much on the Central forces in the Valley.

Speaking to the media after her meeting with the PM, Ms Mufti said though he was amenable to holding talks with all stakeholders in the Valley, this was possible only after the situation turned normal. She again floated the idea of following former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee’s strategy of holding talks with the separatists.