Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday claimed the Indian security forces were geared up to foil Pakistan’s attempts to create trouble in Jammu and Kashmir and to deal with militants, PTI reported.
“Pakistan is continuing its efforts to create unrest in the valley but our security forces will frustrate all its attempts,” the BJP leader said in Jammu. He added that necessary security arrangements were being made to prevent Pakistan’s attempts to create unrest in the Valley by allegedly using frequent ceasefire violations.
“The militants are trying to scare away and frighten businessmen who have come to Jammu and Kashmir for trade,” Madhav said while responding to a question on the recent attacks on traders in the state. “They are only harming the interests of the people of Kashmir and destroying Kashmiriyat.”
On Thursday, suspected militants had shot dead two truck drivers transporting apples in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district, and injured another. The attack came over a week after an apple trader from Punjab was shot dead, also by suspected militants, in Shopian. The same day, a labourer from Chhattisgarh was gunned down in Pulwama district. On October 14, a truck driver from Rajasthan was shot dead in Shopian.
Alleging that politicians had exploited “Kashmiriyat” over the years, Madhav said: “Kashmiriyat and Hindustaniyat are the same which teaches equality, living in harmony and respecting everyone irrespective of creed, colour, cast and religion”.
He added: “Driving away lakhs of Kashmiri pandits from their homes is not Kashmiriyat and so are the attacks on traders from outside the state.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “well thought-out” decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution will not be revoked, Madhav said, adding that it was done for the betterment of Kashmiris.
“The decision was not based on political consideration or ideological basis but it was meant to restore various rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who were deprived of political, fundamental and democratic rights besides the right to dignity over the last seven decades,” Madhav said. “It [Article 370] was a historic blunder committed by former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in collusion with [National Conference founder] Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. It was a political conspiracy to deprive ordinary people of their rights.”
Opposition parties and others had “no right” to question the BJP on the manner of taking the decision, he claimed.
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