Asserting that attempts were being made to create war hysteria in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Monday that dialogue was the only way to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of a car bomb attack on a central reserve police force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama.
“The only way out through (the prevailing situation) is dialogue,” he said, addressing party workers here.
The former chief minister said there were attempts being made to create war hysteria.
“There have been four wars but nothing was achieved through wars except loss of lives and destruction,” he said.
For the past some days, the situation in Kashmir has been tense, especially after the Jammu and Kashmir police launched an overnight crackdown on Jamaat-e-Islami cadres, arresting its chief and more than 150 members from different parts of the Valley. Senior resistance leader Muhammad Yasin Malik has also been arrested.
Asking the government of Pakistan to take steps towards “ending militancy from its soil”, Abdullah said if Pakistan doesn’t act, then it would be labelled as a “terror state which will bring miseries to its people”.
However he expressed optimism over Pakistan MP Rajesh Kumar Vankwani meeting Prime Minister NarendraModi and external affairs minister SushmaSwaraj.
A member of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Vankwani met the Indian leaders on Saturday and reportedly offered to mediate between governments of India and Pakistan to defuse tension in the wake of the Pulwama attack in which more than 40 CRPF men were killed.
“I am happy that Imran Khan had sent his representative and I am hopeful that this war hysteria will lessen now…please pray those clouds of war make way for peace,” Abdullah said.