Rajnath Singh meets leaders of various political parties in J&K

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a two day visit to Kashmir, had a series of detailed meetings with mainstream political parties at Nehru Guest House in Srinagar. Rajnath Singh arrived yesterday in Srinagar to take stock of the situation in the trouble-torn Kashmir following the current unrest in the aftermath of the spontaneous protests and violence after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani (and his two associates on 8th of July) in Kokernag area of south Kashmir.

Today, Home Minister will meet several civil society delegations and is scheduled to hold meeting with Chief Minister. This is the second visit of Home Minister in a month to the valley. Earlier, he undertook two day Kashmir visit on July 23 and 24. Rajnath Singh’s latest Kashmir visit is significant in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for dialogue within the ambit of Indian constitution that he made after meeting a delegation of mainstream political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir led by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday.

Rajnath Singh started his latest visit with a welcome note to “all who believe in Kashmiriyat, Insaniyat and Jamhooriyat.” Meanwhile, authorities have imposed curfew in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district after the



killing of a young protester during clashes in Prichoo area of Pulwama district yesterday. With this killing, the civilian death toll reached 65 while two policemen have also died in the ongoing unrest so far. A grenade attack in the same area left nine policemen including three officers injured yesterday. The restrictions under Sec 144 will also continue across Kashmir Valley.

The delegations of ruling PDP, BJP and main opposition National Conference and Congress met Home Minister at Nehru Guest House in Srinagar. Rajnath Singh also had detailed meeting with the cabinet ministers. He also chaired separate high level security and administrative meetings with top security and administrative officials. All the delegations of political parties apprised Rajnath Singh about the prevailing situation and loss of human lives, injuries to thousands of people including security officials during the current unrest in Valley.

The Home Minister was requested to initiate a comprehensive, meaningful and sustained political dialogue with all stakeholders in the State without any further loss of time. Governor N N Vohra briefed Rajnath Singh about the obtaining internal security situation and the steps required to be taken for the restoration of normalcy in the State.