PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday, 4 May, appealed to the Centre and militants in the state to declare a ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir for the Muslim fasting month of Ramzan so that “people get some relief”.
“The month of Ramzan is starting after a couple of days and so, I appeal the Government of India that ours is a Muslim-majority state and people here are facing difficulties,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister told reporters.
“It is a month of prayer and so I request them (Centre) to announce a ceasefire like the last year so that crackdowns, search operations and encounters are stopped and people get some relief,” she added.
She also asked the militants to stop attacks on security forces.
‘I also want to tell militants that they should understand that this blessed month is a month of prayer and repentance and so they should not carry out any attacks in this month’Mehbooba Mufti, Leader, PDP
Ramzan is likely to commence from Monday or Tuesday.
The Union government in May last year had directed security forces not to launch operations in Jammu and Kashmir during Ramzan, to help Muslims observe the holy month in a "peaceful environment".
Mehbooba was, at the time, heading a PDP-BJP coalition government in the state and had requested the Centre to announce the ceasefire.
However, the Centre ended the ceasefire after exactly a month as militant attacks continued during the period. Soon after, the BJP withdrew its support from the PDP.
“Modi keeps on saying that he wants to follow Vajpayee's policy of insaniyat, jhamooriyat and Kashmiriyat and I feel that announcing a Ramadhaan ceasefire will be the biggest proof of democracy and humanity,” she said.
The former chief minister also said that while elections are going on in the country, the Centre has turned Jammu and Kashmir "into a battlefield" and slammed decisions like ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and JKLF, the suspension of cross-LoC trade, and the closure of highway for civilian traffic for two days a week.
The PDP president said that since the elections started, youths have been arrested "in the name of stone-pelting" especially from south Kashmir where from she is contesting the Lok Sabha polls.
Asked if anti-militancy operations, like the one on Friday in Shopian, would have any impact on the polling in the two districts of Shopian and Pulwama in the last leg of the three-phased polls in the Anantnag constituency, Mehbooba said, “naturally, it will have an impact.”
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