Announce unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan: J&K parties to Centre

The participants at the all-party meeting in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday appealed to the Centre to announce a unilateral ceasefire with terrorists during Ramzan and the upcoming Amarnath yatra.

“It was a unanimous decision of all the parties during the meeting that the government of India should consider ceasefire during Ramadhan in Kashmir,” Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti told reporters after the all-party meeting concluded at SKICC, here.

“Everyone agreed that we must appeal to the Centre that the government must think about a unilateral ceasefire like Vajpayee did in 2000. Encounters and crackdowns are causing trouble to common man. Efforts must be made to maintain environment so that both Eid and Amarnath Yatra are peaceful.

“It was satisfying to note that all participants were unanimously concerned about the unending cycle of violence in the state and wished its immediate end,” she said.

In December 2000, then Prime Minister Vajpayee had announced a unilateral ceasefire with militants during Ramzan in Kashmir.

The meeting had been called by the state government to discuss the worsening security situation in the Valley that has seen frequent encounters between security forces and militants and deaths of civilians in firing during protests near the encounter sites.

Apart from the ruling PDP and BJP, the opposition National Conference and the Congress participated in the three-hour-long meeting. The meeting was convened after Mehbooba met Governor N N Vohra at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday evening.

The chief minister said that an all-party delegation would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the outreach. “Everyone agreed that if agenda of an alliance between the BJP and the PDP is followed, then the situation in J&K can be changed. Everyone also agreed that we meet PM Modi and express our concerns over the situation in the state and discuss how we reach out to the people of Jammu & Kashmir,” she said.

Forty-one people, including security personnel, civilians and militants, were killed in various militancy-related incidents in the Valley in April, while 21 people have died so far this month.