SRINAGAR/JAMMU, 22 November 2002 — A special session of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature began yesterday with Governor G.C. Saxena urging the central government to open a “serious and result oriented” dialogue to solve the Kashmir problem.
Saxena said legislators and other sections of the people should be involved in the proposed dialogue to usher “just and durable peace” in the state that has been “traumatized and brutalized” for the past 13 years by a dragging separatist campaign.
The governor reiterated the common minimum program of the coalition government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, who has vowed to release political prisoners and to provide an administration with a “healing touch”. Saxena said the dialogue was imperative to bring in “peace with dignity” for the people of Kashmir.
In his address to the lawmakers, Saxena recalled initiatives launched by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to start a dialogue aimed at resolving the 50-year-old Kashmir problem.
Hailing the government’s common minimum program as the “reconciliation of national interests with the legitimate aspirations of the people”, Saxena noted that existing laws were adequate to deal with militancy in the state and there was no need to resort to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).
Saxena said the cases of all persons held in jail without trial or having no serious charges against them would be reviewed. The families of victims of militancy would be rehabilitated and help would also be given to the families of dead militants. Saxena promised an inquiry into all cases of custodial deaths and other instances of human rights violations by security forces. In this regard, the state human rights commission would be strengthened.
Earlier, Congress party legislator Tara Chand was yesterday unanimously elected speaker of the Kashmir Assembly.
The 87-member house elected by voice vote endorsed the election after Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma proposed his name and Finance Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh seconded it.
Meanwhile, India yesterday said there had been a “discernible decline” in militants incursions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.
Defense Minister George Fernandes said the increased vigil by troops deployed on the border and diplomatic initiatives had helped in arresting the infiltration of Pakistan-backed militants.
