Manmohan to lead Cong panel to Kashmir next month

Srinagar: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who heads the Congress’s policy planning group on Kashmir, will lead a team of party leaders to Jammu and Kashmir next month for discussion on current situation in the state with party workers and “like-minded” groups.
“Singh, who is likely to be accompanied by Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni, will visit Jammu on September 10 and Kashmir on 16 September,” Congress state president G A Mir said here. Mir said Singh and other members of the team would meet party leaders and workers.
“The idea is to get inputs from the grassroots. The current issues that the state is facing will also be discussed,” he said. He said the Singh-led team would also meet “like-minded opposition groups” in the state. Mir said the team would also visit Ladakh region at a later date.
The Congress set up the policy planning group, headed by the former prime minister, on Jammu and Kashmir in April this year following worsening situation in the valley due to widespread street protests in the wake of eight deaths in security forces firing on April 9 during bypolls to the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.