To end Unrest, Opposition insists on dialogue

Prepares memorandum of demands, wants to apprise President of ground situation

The mainstream Opposition parties and legislators gathered on a single stage on Wednesday to discuss and seek a way out from the ongoing unrest in the Kashmir valley, sparked by killing of a militant commander, and appealed to the Union Government to initiate a dialogue to address it.
Senior leaders and legislators of several Opposition parties, including the National Conference, Congress, CPM, People’s Democratic Front, Awami Ittehad Party and the Democratic Party Nationalist, met at the residence of former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here.
The parties, whose leaders met for several hours and prepared a memorandum of demands, have an accumulated strength of 30 legislators in the state Legislative Assembly of 87 seats.
Omar, the working president of the NC, later briefed the media. He was accompanied by Congress state president Ghulam Ahmad Mir, CPM state secretary MY Tarigami, PDF’s Hakim Mohammad Yasin, DPN’s Ghulam Hassan Mir and independent legislator Engineer Rashid.
Omar said Opposition leaders would try to seek an appointment with President Pranab Mukherjee and apprise him of the “real ground situation”. “We want to take the grievances of people to that quarter where if it is properly addressed it will ease the situation,” he said.
He said the Opposition leaders would try to put their “point of view” before the leaders in New Delhi and try to “prepare them to accept that dialogue with all stakeholders is the need of the time”.
The NC leader said all political parties had “supported dialogue in the past as well”. “We have always been votaries of resolution of all problems through dialogue,” he said, hoping that New Delhi and Islamabad would take the “requisite steps to improve the environment so that dialogue is possible”.
Omar said there has been no recognition of the anger during the current unrest, which is in its second month now. “Both the Centre and the state are turning a blind eye to the situation. If you don’t recognise the anger, if you don’t seek to address the root cause of the anger, how will the anger die away,” he said. “Why is it that we don’t get owned,” he said.
Omar said the Opposition parties met to take stock of the situation and “tried to take advantage of experienced colleagues so that we can find a solution to current situation”.
He said the Central and state governments should take “steps to check the excessive use of force” and demanded a judicial inquiry into it. “All of us are disturbed by this that our youngsters are dying by the firing of security forces, we are disturbed that whether it be state or the Central government, they have shown carelessness in dealing with the situation,” he said.
Omar said the political nature of Jammu and Kashmir issue had not been fully understood, “neither has it been acknowledged”. “We have discussed all these issues and agreed on several other points which have been made into a memorandum,” Omar said. “It includes some suggestions which will help in easing the situation if not providing an immediate solution,” he added.
Omar claimed Pakistan was not the “architect” of the ongoing unrest, but might have attempted to “fish in troubled waters”. “We have to rectify our own errors then only we should look towards others,” he said.
He said in some places “reaction is sought from the people”. “People are being detained without any reason and this is the reason that those areas which have remained peaceful so far are now joining the agitation,” he said. Omar said despite assurances to ban pellet guns, which has blinded many civilians, they continued to remain in use.
The former CM said he would not seek the “dismissal of the government”. “This is not about the battle for the chair, this is about safeguarding the future generation,” he said.