No skirmishes on borders during my tenure as CM: Sayeed

Amid increase in the number of ceasefire violations, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said there were "no" skirmishes on borders during his tenure as Chief Minister as there was a perceptible improvement in relations between India and Pakistan.
In an interview with an Australian publication here, he said that India and Pakistan have to resolve all their issues across the table as gun is "not" a solution.
"You can change friends, not neighbours. Gun is no solution. All issues between India and Pakistan have to be resolved across the table," he said.
The state government issued the excerpts of the interview given to the foreign editor of 'The Australian' here.

Sayeed said that during his first tenure as Chief Minister, there was perceptible improvement in relations between India and Pakistan and there were no skirmishes on borders.
The Chief Minister said the government was working on widening the scope of cross-Line of Control trade and travel between the divided parts of Kashmir.

"The cross-LoC trade and travel between India and Pakistan is the biggest confidence building measure. We have two trade and travel points at Uri-Salamabad in Kashmir and Chakan da Bagh in Jammu division and we are working to broaden the scope of cross-LoC trade and travel further," he said.

Sayeed said the coalition between his PDP and the BJP was a "true representative" government.
"Coalition with BJP gives government a truly representative character, which reflects its multicultural ethos. While we swept Kashmir, BJP won majority in Jammu. Our coalition is governed by the Agenda of the Alliance," he said.
On the tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, Sayeed said the state "can match any international leisure destination".
"There is a need to change negative perception, work towards removing adverse travel advisories about Jammu and Kashmir. Seeing is believing. Please see things for yourselves.
"While footfall of tourists in Kashmir is from across the globe, Leh is popular amongst foreign travellers more, especially from South East nations, and Jammu receives a large number of pilgrim tourists," he added.