Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday promised equal development of both the Jammu and Kashmir regions and said "no one" will be allowed to disrupt the development process started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the union territory. Shah is on his three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir. On the last day i.e. Monday, Shah inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various development projects in Srinagar.
Addressing a public meeting in the Valley on Monday, Amit Shah said, "Farooq Abdullah advised the Indian government to talk to Pakistan… I want to talk to the youth of the Valley. I extended a hand of friendship to the youth of the Valley. The development of the Valley, Jammu and the newly created Ladakh is a step taken with a pure motive."
Shah said in his address that he wants the youth not to pick up stones but to pick up pens. Shah said, "Many people raised questions that after the abrogation of Article 370, the land of the people of the Valley will be snatched away. Want to keep it going."
Security has been tightened as terror attacks escalate in the Valley. Now, women and children are also being searched on the streets.
Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and President of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) has questioned this.
She tweeted, "After taking such stringent, harsh & repressive measures like mass arrests, suspension of the internet at will, frisking people (not sparing even kids), seizing bikes plus two-wheelers & setting up new security bunkers all over what is left to do?"
In fact, Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat had said recently that security surveillance is being intensified to thwart the attacks of terrorists. Mehbooba had tweeted on this statement and expressed her displeasure.
She wrote in his tweet, "Bipin Rawat's statement is not surprising even after Kashmir has been converted into an open prison, as the only way for the Indian government to deal with the situation in J&K is repression. This is his official position. Contrary to the statement that everything is fine here."
On the second day of his visit, Amit Shah had said that the government wants to create such an environment that not a single person should die. He said that they are working on such a plan so that terror is completely eradicated.
Without naming the Congress, Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah, Shah said that in 70 years of the rule of the three families, there would not have been as much development as it did during the tenure of the Modi government.
Shah asked the public to demand the accounts of the deaths of thousands of people of Jammu and Kashmir from the three families.
A civilian was allegedly killed in an encounter between terrorists and CRPF in the Shopian area on Sunday. On the other hand, the encounter is going on between the terrorists hiding in the forest of Poonch district and the army. The search operation of the army is going on in this forest for the last 15 days.
Attacks on civilians by terrorists have increased in the month of October and so far 11 innocent lives have been lost. Migrant labourers coming from other states do not want to live in an atmosphere of panic and are returning to their respective homes.
While the Home Minister of the country is appealing to the youth of Kashmir to take up pens instead of stones, on the other hand, after the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match in Dubai on Sunday, many Kashmiri students protested against India's defeat in Sangrur, Punjab.
The latter is accused of the alleged assault. It is alleged that Kashmiri students raised anti-India slogans. The police had claimed to have brought the matter under control by reaching the spot. All of them are students of Sangrur's brother Gurdas Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has tweeted and appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to pay attention to the matter.
