Anantnag: Former chief minister and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday urged the Government of India to talk to Pakistan to stop the ongoing bloodshed in Kashmir valley.
“A dialogue process should be initiated, here in Kashmir and if needed with Pakistan, for the BJP has been blaming them for the bloodshed in Kashmir. A dialogue can be initiated at least to stop the bloodshed,” Mufti told media persons in Aishmuqam area of Anantnag district.
She was visiting the house of policeman Suhail Ahmad, killed in Friday’s militant attack in Barzulla area of Srinagar. Suhail was among two policemen killed in the attack.
On Friday six people were killed in three different incidents, three of them militants and an equal number of policemen. A policeman was also injured during the gunfight in Budgam district.
Mufti, during her visit to the family, condemned the killings and questioned the government of India for its lack of initiative to bring peace and normalcy in Kashmir valley.
“How long do Kashmiri people have to pay the price with their blood, be it policemen or other young people,” Mufti said, in a veiled reference to militants getting killed in gunfights. “The government of India should think about this and work towards bringing peace and normalcy in Kashmir,” she said.
She said that Kashmir was an issue that needs to be resolved so that people of Kashmir can live in peace.
“The bloodshed has been going on for a long time now. This boy who was killed yesterday, he saw his father killed when he was four. How long will the people of Kashmir be brutalised like this,” Mufti asked.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people kept pouring in through the day to express their sympathies with the family of the killed policeman.

Suhail A Shah