JKNPP calls for ceasefire to usher in new year with peace

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (NPP) president Bhim Singh Saturday called for a ceasefire for at least three months beginning the new year to end "bloodshed" in the state.

He also demanded that the Army be withdrawn from populated areas and an advisory committee be set up to deal with circumstances and situation during the President's rule with a new approach and working order.

"Bullets from all sides have only resulted in death and destruction and nothing else... there should be a ceasefire for at least three months from the first day of the new year," Singh told reporters here.

He praised the Army and suggested that soldiers be withdrawn from the populated areas during the ceasefire period and assigned the primary task of defending the borders.

"The military shall do a great job defending our borders which have been disturbed by foreign power," he said.

Police are competent to look after the disturbed areas. Thy should deal with the law and order, he added.

The NPP supremo made a fervent appeal to the "gun-wielding youths" to deposit the weapons in respective police stations and join the mainstream for reconstruction and prosperity of the state.

Pleading for the setting up of an advisory committee, Singh urged President Ram Nath Kovind to ensure that justice is done to people residing in Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu regions of the state.

"Fresh approach should be initiated with fresh thinking in order to involve people, particularly the youth, towards progress and development through construction and not destruction.

"It is possible only if the government involves youth from all regions of the state as well as the social and political thinkers from all schools of thought who are committed to peace, progress, secularism and nationalism," he said.

He said all youths against whom cases are registered or are wanted by the police should not be "killed" but persuaded to surrender.

Singh said his legal aid committee, set up in 1975 to help the boys in the jails, would take up the cases of all those who would surrender during this period.

"The Legal Aid Committee shall provide free legal aid from the district to the state High Court and up to the Supreme Court. Justice shall be done," he said.