Pandey stayed as ex- J&K Governor’s guest, claims Mufti

The Mufti expressed concern over the alleged involvement of seers and Army officers in Malegaon blasts. “Now even Army officers are found to be involved in the terror activities apart from Hindu extremists. It is a very serious and dangerous trend,” he said. He said that it has become evident now that Lt Col Purohit had sourced blast material from J-K.

He said that despite their earlier reservations on participation in elections, given the present political situation in the state, his party has finally decided to take on the challenge, claiming that the “special status of the state is already on the dilution path and they don’t want it to get further diluted”.

“I had met the Election Commission officials and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and apprised them that the conditions in the state were not conducive for the elections at the moment, but the NC wants that the uncertainty should end,” he said.

Reiterating that his stand on the Amarnath land row was right, Mufti Sayeed said he cancelled the allotment as he had foreseen the reaction it will generate in Kashmir. “The decision of re-allotment was taken by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and that led to the nearly two-month-long crisis in the state. He should have called me to know why I had cancelled the allotment,” he said. He said that even now the land has not been transferred, it has only been allowed to be used by the pilgrims, which they were pushing for from the beginning.

Mufti Sayeed said that the PDP is all for resolution of the Kashmir issue through democratic process. “We will resolve the Kashmir problem. Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. We will make it a bridge,” he said.

Stressing that self-rule is in the realm of possibility, Mufti Sayeed said, “If you have to resolve the Kashmir issue, you have to move away from the stated position.”

“I have presented the framework of self-rule to the Prime Minister. I told him that without changing the borders, there is a dire need to make the borders irrelevant,” he added.

Saying that Article 356 should not apply to the state, Mufti Sayeed said that the President should not have the right to dissolve the Assembly, adding that the verdict of the people in the state needs to be respected.

He said that they are also stressing that the Governor should be a state subject and the state should have its own civil services.

Talking about cross-LoC trade, Mufti Sayeed said that there are bureaucratic delays on both sides of LoC. “Right now the trade is a trickle. There are no phone and postal links to facilitate trade. Trade should not be just symbolic. I told the PM that trade routes should also be opened through Jammu-Sialkote as Jammu is the nerve centre of industrial sector,” he said.