All-party meet calls for engagement of all stake holders to carry forward peace process in J-K

Srinagar, July 21 (ANI): An all-party meeting called by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday passed a resolution on the ongoing unrest in the valley, calling for an inclusive engagement of all stake holders in the state for carrying forward the peace and reconciliation process. Divulging details of the meeting, Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar said, "Every participant and participating party have expressed their views on the current situation and the reasons behind such flare-ups which have been happening unfortunately since last so many years, after five years, six years, eight years. So the main emphasis of the discussion was on how to prevent recurrence of this." In order to convey it's feelings to the people of the state and to the leadership at the national level across the party lines and the Government of India, the meeting passed a resolution, said Akhtar. The resolution expressed deep grief and concern at the loss of lives and injuries caused since July 8 and called for restraints on all sides. The meeting took note of the empathy and expresses solidarity with the people of the state, which is reflected in the debate in both Houses of Parliament," said Akhtar. Reading out the resolution, Akhtar further said, "The meeting called for converting this consensus and impact into a national initiative for addressing the problem confronting the state of Jammu and Kashmir." "The meeting also called for an inclusive engagement of all stake holders in jammu and Kashmir for carrying forward the peace and reconciliation process," he added. Expressing "regret" over the main opposition party the National Conference giving a miss to the meeting, the ruling People's Democratic Party leader said, "Today, the chief minister has called an-all party conference, in which almost all parties of the Valley, except the National Conference, participated. We are grateful to all the parties for participated in today's meeting and regret the absence of the main opposition party." The Nation Conference had on Wednesday announced its decision to boycott the meeting, which was called by the chief minister to review the situation in the violence-hit Valley and find a way out of the unrest, blaming that actions in the recent past shown that there was no "effective leadership" in the state government. Meanwhile, authorities lifted curfew in four districts of Kashmir where schools were scheduled to reopen today. However, the ban on movement of people continued in the rest of the six districts of the Valley as a precautionary measure. A police official said curfew has been lifted from Bandipora, Baramulla, Budgam and Ganderbal districts of the valley, but restrictions on the assembly of people under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC ) continued in these districts as a precautionary measure. He said the curfew was lifted in order to facilitate the reopening of the schools in these areas. Meanwhile, curfew continued in the remaining six districts of the Valley and local newspapers in the Kashmir Valley returned to the stands after five days - a day after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met editors and owners of city-based newspapers. Most of the local newspapers, including those papers which alleged a clampdown by the government, were published today as the newspaper distributors and hawkers returned to their business. (ANI)