Deadline nears, PDP points finger at Cong

Sayeed, who chose to speak in Urdu rather than Kashmiri, repeated his party’s resolve not to budge from its manifesto that calls for talks with militants and disbanding of the Special Operations Group of the J-K Police which has been accused of human rights violations and custodial killings. ‘‘There would be no compromise on our manifesto as only boli and not goli will solve the problem,’’ he said.

Taking a dig at former chief minister Farooq Abdullah over his statement that he had no ‘‘moral right to continue in office after the end of his term’’, Sayeed said: ‘‘For six years he wrecked Kashmir and was responsible for the mess but he never remembered ethics then. Today, when his continuation as CM for three more days could have avoided Governor’s rule, he suddenly remembered his morality.’’

Separately, Mehbooba Mufti accused the Congress of ‘‘stalling’’ the formation of a new government, saying it had created a situation where Jammu region and Kashmir Valley were seen as being pitted against each other. Claiming that a PDP Chief Minister would have provided a ‘‘healing touch’’, she told PTI that the Congress had governments in 14 states, and that ‘‘heavens would have not fallen if in the 15th state a non-Congress led government would have been formed’’.