Anantnag/ Delhi: Reacting to Member of Parliament (MP) from Srinagar Farooq Abdullah’s ‘third-party intervention’ comment, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that the situation in Kashmir valley would be same as Syria and Afghanistan if America starts intervening. Congress party a tactical ally of the opposition National Conference in Jammu & Kashmir too has dismissed Farooq Abdullah’s demand for third party mediation on Kashmir.
The first to dismiss Farooq Abdullah’s demand for third party mediation on Kashmir was Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who while talking to reporters on the sidelines of an official function in Anantnag said “There can be no place for a third party intervention in Jammu and Kashmir.”
“America should mind its own business. Everyone knows what is the situation of the countries wherever they intervened be it Afghanistan, Syria or Iraq,” she said.
Ms Mehbooba said that the only bilateral talks between India and Pakistan can help in resolving the Kashmir issue. “We have the Lahore Declaration and the Shimla Agreement with us,” she said.
The comment by the Chief Minister comes a day after her party PDP Vice President Sartaj Madni welcomed the comment made by Mr Abdullah though her alliance partner in the government BJP rejected the suggestion.
However, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah came in defence of his father, saying that the people reacting to Farooq Abdullah’s ‘third-party intervention’ comment are giving a different spin to it.
“Dr Abdullah didn’t call for mediation he said “Trump offered to help & CHINA OFFERED to mediate”. How is that the same as him asking for it. Talk about spinning a statement. Dr Abdullah has said friends can be used to facilitate a dialogue with Pakistan, to facilitate a solution,” Mr Omar, who is the working president of National Conference (NC), wrote on micro-blogging site twitter yesterday.
Mr Abdullah, who is the president of NC, stir a controversy after he said that India has so many allies across the globe, which can be approached for settling the Kashmir issue and act as a mediator between India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile a high-level policy-planning group of the Congress for Jammu and Kashmir in Delhi on Saturday rejected the proposal, saying the issue needs to be settled only bilaterally.
The group also blamed the Central and state Governments for the continued killings there and hit out at them for “failing to handle the situation effectively”.
The group headed by former prime minister Manmohan Singh Saturday met and discussed the prevailing situation in the State and expressed “deep anguish” over the developments in Kashmi
