Government's Kashmir policy will prove disastrous: CPI-M

The BJP government's Kashmir policy "will prove disastrous" for its people and is also "fraught with serious consequences for the country", the CPI-M has said.

"What is required to be done immediately is to take steps to defuse the situation and bring back peace and normalcy," an editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy" said.

It demanded a ban on pellet guns used by security forces, withdrawal of the army from the civilian areas, a judicial enquiry into all instances of excesses committed by security forces against civilians and compensation to all families who have suffered loss of lives in the ongoing unrest.

"This has to be followed by initiating a structured dialogue without preconditions with all shades of political opinion in the state," said the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

"Along with this, the comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan has to be resumed which includes the Kashmir issue," it added.

The editorial said the Narendra Modi government showed no signs of changing its approach in tackling the situation in the Kashmir Valley, where mass protests erupted after the July 8 killing of a militant, Burhan Wani.

It said the "mass movement" in the valley was led by a new generation of youth. "More repressive measures are not going to quell the popular protests," it warned.

--IANS

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