Altaf Bukhari led J&K politicians to meet Modi, Shah over statehood, domicile rights

A group of politicians led by former minister and PDP rebel Altaf Bukhari will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to press for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and domicile rights.

"A meeting of senior political leaders, academicians, legal luminaries, and social activists took place in Jammu on Thursday. It was unanimously decided that the group, led by Bukhari, will call on Modi and Shah and press for issues like restoration of statehood and domicile rights for land and jobs," a spokesperson of the group said in a statement.

The meeting, he said, also took stock of the present socio-economic and political situation in J&K. "The meeting declared the situation in J&K as unprecedented which needs to be addressed through extraordinary measures. It was seriously felt that people of J&K are caught in a difficult day-to-day situation and have been left to the mercy of an unresponsive administration," the spokesperson said.

The meeting also underlined the urgent need for the release of all political prisoners, including former three chief ministers, who are under detention in Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the country.

The meeting also evolved a consensus for a need to provide the people of J&K a viable, democratic political alternative. "Hectic deliberations were also held to reach out to the people for mobilizing a democratic grass roots movement aimed at developing strong local structures on the ground," he said.

Bukhari led group is seen as a much-speculated "Third Front" backed by the BJP government to counter regional mainstream political parties in J&K. The group has in recent times met Lt Governor G C Murmu and foreign envoys who visited J&K. These events seem to indicate that there may be some effort to shore up whatever middle ground there remains in J&K on the political front.