Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti believes that Narendra Modi is Kashmir’s only hope for peace. Addressing People’s Democratic Party workers in south Kashmir, she said Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh, whose ancestral village is in Pakistan, could not even muster the courage to visit the place where he was born, let alone initiate dialogue with Pakistan about the Kashmir conflict.

“If there is any leader who can talk to Pakistan it is him [Modi],” Mufti said. “If there is anyone with the mandate to heal the wounds of people of Jammu and Kashmir, take the state out of the morass, start dialogue with Pakistan and make the atmosphere conducive, it is only Narendra Modiji and no one else.”

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Mufti was campaigning for her brother who is contesting the bypolls for the Anantnag seat in the Lok Sabha, which was vacated by her last year, reported PTI. The chief minister spoke about her father’s vision of opening routes to Kashmir so that the region finds its place on the map for better reasons.

“We don’t only have bijli, pani and sadak issues, we have humanitarian issues,” she said. “If they [India and Pakistan] are talking about Indus Water Treaty today, tomorrow they will talk about opening of the roads.” She also pointed out that the Agenda of Alliance between the PDP and the BJP in the state aims to open all traditional routes in the state that have been shut because of unrest and violence.

The state has been a hotbed of violence and unrest for generations now. Kashmir was thrown out of gear for several months in 2016 after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani’s killing in July. Schools and other establishments had remained closed for months, large-scale protests had been organised, and security forces were accused of using excessive force to quell the resistance. The Indian government believes infiltration attempts in the area have risen over the past few months.