Pak should spare JK from fresh adventures, says Mufti

The frequency of ceasefire violations along the border suggests that the decade-old truce "is all but crashing", PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said, and announced a rally to convey the message to Pakistan that it should spare the state any fresh adventures.
"The message has to go across to Pakistani leadership to spare the state and the region any fresh adventures. The concerns of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as the frontline state must be respected and ceasefire restored," Sayeed said.
He said that PDP has decided to take out a peace march on November 4 in Srinagar.

The PDP leader said the recent escalation in firing along the LoC would suggest that the decade long truce is "all but crashing".
"The rising tension along the LOC and international border with Pakistan has been causing very serious concern in entire state. The intensity and frequency of ceasefire violations would suggest the decade long truce is all but crashing," he said.
Many frontier villages have already borne the brunt of renewed acts of hostility and there have been reports of migration, injuries and deaths as a result of firing and shelling, he said.

Sayeed said that people of the state had looked up to the Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif summit in New York with great hope for revival of peace process which lay in virtual tatters.

"Unfortunately, the meeting failed even to restore normalcy on borders not to speak of any measures on the vision unfolded in 2003. Even the DGMOs of the two countries have not been able to follow up on the declaration by the Prime Ministers," he said.
Sayeed also said the time has come for revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir as militancy has reduced substantially compared to 1990s, when the controversial act was first extended to the state.
"In 2007, I had formal negotiations with the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) that AFSPA needs to be revoked because the situation is not like it used to be in 1989 or 1990s," Sayeed said.