Tarigami wants India to declare unilateral cease-fire in J&K

All parties must work for restoration of peace in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Oct 7: The state secretary of CPI(M) Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami today demanded an unconditional unilateral cease-fire by Government of India (GoI) in the state.

Addressing a press conference here, he said Centre being the main party has primary responsibility for the restoration of peace and solution of Kashmir issue. “The government must not wait for the militants to announce the cease fire and should take a bold initiative by announcing an unconditional and unilateral cease-fire”, Tarigami said.

He observed that the announcement of cease-fire would create  appositive feeling among the Kashmiri masses and generate a good will towards the centre. “The image of union government continues to be tarnished on human rights and democratic fronts”, the CPI(M) leader said and added that it can raise it popularity graph not only here but at the international level also by the bold initiative.

Asked whether his demand will get a positive response from his party high command and at official level. Tarigami viewed that CPI(M) leadership has already been apprised about it and hoped that at official level the demand will be responded positively.

“The Government of India must treat Kashmir as a human problem and try to solve it through humanitarian means. Whosoever gets killed here-whether a militant, a security man or a civilian, they are all human being and this bloodshed must come to an end”, he said.

To a question as how the militants would respond once the GoI announces a cease-fire he said militants claim that they represent the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, who want restoration of peace and a political and dignified solution of the issue.

“If the militants are really concerned about the people, they will have to respond positively to Indian cease-fire”, he said. According to him the Hizbul Mujahideen cease-fire was not a coincidence, it represented the wish of the people, who want early return of the peace. “I will not go into details of its failure, but I would definitely say that people all over the Valley had a sigh of relief during the cease-fire period,” Tarigami said. The atrocities on people came down considerably. The farmers would remain out in their farms and orchards till late evening hours and same was the case with shopkeepers.

As the cease-fire ended lives of people in villages turned into hell again and they are suffering immensely. If the Central government has any concern about the people here, it should adopt a humanely approach and announce the cease-fire.

Tarigami urged the secular minded and peace loving people of the country to come to the rescue of Kashmiri people and pressurise the government to end the anti-people policies. “They must mount pressure on Centre to adopt a realistic approach towards Kashmir issue and treat the people living in this state as human beings”, he said.

The CPI(M) leader stated that since day one he was very keen to see this bloodshed coming to and end. He said he raised the issue at relevant fora a number of times. Tarigami wrote letters to chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and senior Hurriet Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani asking them to work for ending the violence and solution of Kashmir issue through peaceful means.

“But they did not respond to the letters”, he said.

Tarigami stated that gun has played its role in projecting the Kashmir issue. “Now it is the time for ending this gun culture and solving the issue through political means”, he said.

Courtesy: The Kashmir Times

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