India, Pak must find a way to end bloodshed, says Farooq Abdullah

Jammu: Skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani forces were only adding to people’s sufferings and governments of both the countries should find a way to restore peace at the borders, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah said on Sunday.

“Unless they (India and Pakistan) find a way out, away from this (border skirmishes), people on both sides will continue to suffer and many will die. Many of our soldiers will also die and a similar situation will be on their side,” he said.

The government of India must find a way forward, the NC chief said.

“What that way forward is, is up to the Prime Minister to decide. I am too small to suggest anything to him. But I will say the same thing to the Pakistani side, to the premier of that side. The time has come when this bloodshed must stop, and peace must be restored on the border and in the state here as well as in the area they hold on their side,” the former chief minister told reporters at the sidelines of a function here.

In response to a question about heavy Pakistani shelling along the LoC in Uri sector of north Kashmir, he said the shelling was not one sided but going on from both sides. “They are shelling us and we are shelling them back. They shell us one per cent, we shell them 10 per cent as the Army Chief has said,” he said.

On Pakistani troops targeting civilians, Mr Abdullah said a bomb does not know where it is going to fall. The shelling is resorted to frighten the people, he said.

The NC leader’s comment comes against the backdrop of a series of ceasefire violations by the Pakistani forces along the LoC in J&K.

Asked about amnesty gratned by the state government to stone-pelters, the MP said those released should realise that the time has come when they have to think of their careers and how to take the state out of turmoil.