Srinagar
Ruling People’s Democratic Party today said the Centre should provide jobs to the next of kin of the three boys killed by Army troops in north Kashmir’s Kupwara, besides punishing the erring personnel.
“Besides giving punishment to the erring Army personnel, the Centre should also provide jobs to the next of kin of the deceased. The state government will also do its bit,” PDP President Mehbooba Mufti said while addressing a gathering here on the party’s sixth foundation day.
“Workers of a private company were lathicharged in Gurgaon, which is condemnable, and it hogged the limelight in Parliament, but three kids were killed by Army troops in Kupwara but nobody mentioned it,” she said.
“Everybody talks about Kashmir being ‘atoot ang’ (integral part) of India. What kind of integral part is this where you don’t feel its pain?” she said.
Seeking Pakistan’s “help in ending the bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir,” Ms Mehbooba said, “President Pervez Musharraf should persuade militants, who have taken refuge on the other side of the Line of Control, for a ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir so that peace process and dialogue could move forward.”
When people died in blasts in London, President Musharraf ordered a crackdown in Pakistan. “I want to ask him where is his cane when innocent people are killed in Kashmir,” she said.
She said the Centre should reduce troops in the state as announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year and replace them by police force formed by recruiting local youth. — PTI
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