Take bold initiatives to douse flames in J

Srinagar, Aug 30 (UNI) Urging the Centre to take bold political initiatives to douse the flames in Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today alleged that owing to the failure to uphold the rule of law in the state, the law enforcing agencies have resorted to indiscriminate arrests of youth across the valley.

''It needs bold political initiatives to douse the flames not subjugation,'' PDP General Secretary Nizamudin Bhat and General Secretary, Youth PDP, Bashir Assad said in a joint statement issued here today.

The government did promise to restore Kashmir to its natural geography, they said, adding the government should courageously override its national security apparatus and make good on its promise.

They said it was unfortunate that the government chose not to provide effective means of assuaging people's anxiety over the economic blockade of valley, when people came out massively to protest peacefully, the government deliberately created a confrontationist situation.

Taking strong exception to the indiscriminate arrests made by law enforcing agencies in rural and urban areas of Kashmir, the PDP leaders said in repeat of what was done in 1989, the law enforcing agencies clamped down on the local media, thrashed demonstrators and journalists broke into the homes and intimidate the inhabitants including elderly, children and women.

''There was no difference between the attitude of the state then and now,'' PDP leaders said and maintained that the unprecedented peaceful demonstrations ought to have evoked a healthy response from the government, but unfortunately it resorted to strong-arm methods.

The government is imposing a ''collective punishment'' on the entire population by launching a manhunt throughout the Kashmir Valley to nab the youth and has rounded up hundreds of peaceful protestors many of them being booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), they alleged.

The leaders maintained that the repressive measures against Kashmiris have neither worked in the past nor will such undemocratic actions help in dousing the flames sparkled by communal and fascist forces by arousing anti-Kashmiri passions across the country.

They cautioned that such repressive measures if continued would have far reaching consequences and urged upon the government to rein in the elements resorting to suppressive measures.

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