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  India   Mehbooba Mufti: Pakistan ‘hypocritical’ on terror

Mehbooba Mufti: Pakistan ‘hypocritical’ on terror

| YUSUF JAMEEL
Published : Jul 25, 2016, 6:55 am IST
Updated : Jul 25, 2016, 6:55 am IST

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday asked Pakistan: “Don’t do unto us what you don’t want others to do unto you”.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti (Photo: PTI)
 Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti (Photo: PTI)

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday asked Pakistan: “Don’t do unto us what you don’t want others to do unto you”.

She said, “Pakistan herself has suffered enormously from terrorism and militancy and is using bombs, drones and much more to eradicate the menace from her soil. Many terrorists have been hanged to death. Also tough measures like Operation Lal Masjid were carried out against extremists.”

She added, “But unfortunately, if our security forces kill militants in encounters, Pakistan describes them as freedom fighters and martyrs to encourage our other youth to take the path of violence.”

“Hamare bachhon ko kyon uksato ho (why do you instigate our children) ” she asked.

Ms Mufti, who met visiting Union home minister Rajnath Singh at the Nehru Guesthouse in the foothills of Zabarwan range here to discuss the ongoing turbulence in Kashmir, which has claimed more than 50 lives, told waiting reporters that Islamabad, in its fight against terror, had sought financial aid and other assistance from the United States and proudly mentions domestic terrorism successes.

“But when we do something similar, they salute the men killed in encounters. It is hypocrisy,” she said.

She also sought to convey to Pakistan and others that terrorists had now even reached the doorsteps of the abode of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, a reference to the July 5 suicide bombing outside the Masjid-e-Nabvi or Prophet’s Mosque in Medina.

She said that when Parliament terror attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged, proper constitutional procedures were not followed and the execution was carried out without the family’s knowledge, which was a “travesty of law”.

“We live in that country”, she said, but added, “I also want to say if Kashmir lives, the entire country will live on. Kashmir hai to mulk hai.”

“If Kashmir aches, the entire country will ache,” she added.

.. If the situation in Kashmir turns bad, the entire country will have to take the brunt.” She added, “We have to save our riyasat (state), we have to save our country.”

She asked for turning the ongoing turbulence in the Valley into an opportunity and said former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had made a good beginning to address the issues in Jammu and Kashmir. “He took some bold initiatives and also made a sincere effort to involve Pakistan in a process of peace and reconciliation. We need to pick up the threads from where he left it. We would be doing that not for Pakistan but in our own interest,” she asserted, adding, “Even today people do talk about the confidence building measures that were initiated by Vajpayee Ji and ask for replicating them.”

Talking about the violent incidents across the Valley, she said that she had learnt the “miscreants” and other “vested interests” had diverted otherwise peaceful processions towards police stations and camps of various security forces. “People were incited to attack these installations and many civilian casualties occurred in retaliations from the security forces. But now people have begun to understand the game plan,” she said.

Location: India, Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar