Mehbooba Mufti: Separatists inciting children to join violence

Taking separatist leaders head-on, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday accused them of instigating the children in the Valley to engage in violence while making sure their own studied abroad or outside the state.

“My colleagues have this (fear) that I may say something. But, I have always spoken truth. The way a mother slaps her child when he tries to touch a hot kangri (firepot), I will do the same to save my people.

“I will be angry, I will speak truth and warn them not to use children as a shield (during street protests),” Mehbooba told a gathering at an official event, invoking motherhood that is devoted to the welfare of the child.

“Instead of pushing our youth on the streets, we should ask them to join their schools and ourselves come to the forefront for resolution of the issues through political and democratic means,” she said. “Neither the stones nor the guns either in hands of the youth, the militants or in the hands of security forces would enable a peaceful solution of the Kashmir problem,” she added.

While speaking at a function held here in connection with the formal launch of the government’s “Ujala” scheme under which LED bulbs will be distributed among the power consumers on subsidised rates in Kashmir, the chief minister said that shutting the doors for emissaries of dialogue is not going to help anyway and that by spurning the parleys, the separatist leadership is not facilitating the solution of the problem but only holding up the resolution process.

She exuded confidence that the Valley will come out of the “misery” as her intentions were noble. “Majority of the people want an honourable solution to the issue. Nobody wants violence except for those who don’t have to face impact of this violence as their own children are studying outside the Valley.

She urged the separatist leadership to engage in negotiations to make peace a reality in the state and bring an end to the miseries of the people. “Instead of pushing our youth on the streets, we should ask them to join their schools and ourselves come to the forefront for resolution of the issues,” she said.

“Neither the stones nor the guns either in hands of the youth, the militants or in the hands of security forces would enable a peaceful solution of the Kashmir problem,” she said.