The Hindu : Front Page : Azad calls all-party meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Azad calls all-party meet

Praveen Swami

Protests continue over land row in J&K

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has initiated efforts to douse the communally-charged protests that have rocked the State this week, saying he will call an all-party meeting to discuss the grant of land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board.

Speaking to journalists in Srinagar on Wednesday, Mr. Azad said no construction would be allowed until a consensus was evolved on the issue.

Last month, the State government had allowed the Shrine Board to put up prefabricated structures for housing pilgrims on 39.88 hectares of forest land. In a May 26 order, the State government made clear that the ownership of the land would remain unchanged, and that the Shrine Board would have to comply with environment protection laws.

However, Islamist protesters claimed the land-grant was part of a plot to seize land from local residents. Tehreek-i-Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani argued the Shrine Board intended to reduce the State’s Muslim majority into a minority.

Mr. Azad sought to address these concerns, saying no permanent structure had been erected around the Amarnath shrine since 2000, a full four years before the Shrine Board was created. Photographs of construction work in the area published in a Srinagar-based newspaper, Mr. Azad said, in fact showed routine façade-maintenance of buildings erected over two decades ago.

But Mr. Azad’s conciliation proposal was rejected out of hand by his party’s principal coalition ally, the People’s Democratic Party.

The former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, refused to participate in the all- party negotiations, insisting that the land-grant be revoked first. Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Beig did not rule out participation in the dialogue, but called on the Shrine Board to promise to return the land assigned to it.

Meanwhile, sporadic violence continued across much of the central and southern Kashmir valley, leading to two deaths.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page