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All-party team to visit Jammu, valley

Vinay Kumar

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Pranab Mukherjee arrives to brief the press after the UPA meet.

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday that various suggestions were given at the all-party meeting here to end the violence in Jammu and Kashmir over the Amarnath land transfer issue. All decisions taken at the meeting were unanimous, he said.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said there was no difficulty if an all-party delegation visited Jammu for holding talks with the agitationists.

(Agencies reported that a multi-party team will visit Jammu and the Kashmir valley as well. An official in the Prime Minister’s Office said it would also travel to the area where the land transfer had become a bone of contention. The team would also interact with Amarnath yatris.)

Asked pointedly if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) offered to take the initiative in defusing the situation in Jammu and help restore peace, Mr. Mukherjee said that the BJP agreed to the suggestions made at the meeting. “Senior leaders like the party president Rajnath Singh, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley attended the meeting from the BJP. Their attitude was supportive,” he said.

PM’s warning

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave a detailed assessment of the grim situation and cautioned that there was a possibility and danger of the situation turning communal and spreading to other States. Describing it as serious, Dr. Singh said that people were suffering because of stoppage of supply of medicines, food and other essential items.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi appealed to all the leaders to lend their support to the government to tackle the situation so that peace and normality could be restored fast.

She also appealed to the leaders to put up a united effort for dealing with the situation rising above their narrow political considerations.

Informed sources said the all-party meeting, attended by 39 parties, witnessed lengthy and heated arguments among the former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.

Sources said that Mr. Mukherjee impressed upon the Left leaders A.B. Bardhan and Sitaram Yechury to request the BJP to take the lead in clinching the initiative for holding talks with the Sangharsh Samiti in Jammu, which is spearheading the agitation there.

Interestingly, it was the first all-party meeting attended by the Left leaders after the four parties withdrew support to the UPA government last month.

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