New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the creation of an expert panel on Tuesday that would seek ways to create jobs in disputed Kashmir, hit by weeks of violent separatist protests against New Delhi.
The PM also said that the government would consider the demand for autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir if there were unanimity among political parties on the issue.
The Prime Minister said this after meeting an all-party delegation from Jammu and Kashmir led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. It lasted nearly four hours.
Singh has been criticised for failing to respond to violence that has killed some 50 people in the past two months, one of the worst outbreaks of unrest since a separatist revolt against New Delhi broke out in Kashmir in 1989.
The deaths have hurt hopes of peace in the region, once home to a vibrant tourism industry, which is seen as key to the stability of a broad zone ranging from India to Afghanistan.
"I assure the youth of Jammu and Kashmir that their genuine empowerment will be accorded the highest priority in our Jammu and Kashmir policy," Singh said in his speech.
The panel will include C. Rangarajan, a former central bank chief and head of Singh's economic advisory panel, and N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of Indian outsourcer Infosys Technologies.
For the past two months, Kashmir has become a hot bed of violence, and protesters have defied curfews to attack the police with stones and set police stations on fire. India's home minister hinted last week the protests could have been incited by Pakistan.
The meeting was held to appraise the Prime Minister with the volatile situation in the Kashmir Valley.
Leaders of the main opposition party in the state, the People's Democratic Party had boycotted the meeting. After the meeting, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said the meeting was good and that the Prime Minister heard all the views of delegation members.
Sources say that at the meeting, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was pulled up for failing to handle the violence in the Valley in which over 50 protestors were killed in police action since June 11.
However, Omar defended his government's handling of the situation. He also told the Prime Minister that most parties in the state were not in favour of Governor's rule.
It is also learnt that the National Conference put forward the demand for autonomy for Kashmir while the Panthers Party demanded delimitation of constituencies.
Meanwhile, the PDP has dismissed as a "joke with the people of Kashmir" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s fresh initiative to end the unrest in the Valley.
"The Prime Minister's statement (at the meeting with an all-party delegation from the state) is a joke with the people of Kashmir", PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed said.
Sayeed described as a "futile exercise" the meeting the PM had with the delegation alleging "nothing will come out of it".
Earlier in the evening, the Prime Minister issued an appeal to the youth and said they should go back to their schools and colleges and resume studies.
"Key to the problem in Kashmir is a political solution that addresses the alienation and emotional needs of the people," Singh said.
Singh added that a political solution could only be achieved through a sustained internal and external dialogue.
"We are ready for this and are willing to discuss all issues within the bounds of democratic process," he said.
In a televised speech in Urdu, he said he could understand the "dard aur mayusi" of the people.
Calling for a new beginning, the Prime Minister said there had been very little development ("bahut kam tarakki") in Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh also spoke on the role of security forces in the Valley and urged the state government to take action to protect policemen and their families.
"Jammu and Kashmir Police and other security forces are performing an extremely challenging task in difficult circumstances... we should not do anything to demoralise the security forces," he added.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, and both the nations seek claim of the region. They have fought two of their three wars over it. Kashmiri separatists in India want to carve out an independent homeland or merge with predominantly Muslim Pakistan.
Militant violence has fallen dramatically in recent years but popular protests have continued over a conflict that has so far officially killed about 47,000 people, mostly civilians. Rights groups put the death toll at 100,000.
Despite Singh's conciliatory tone, senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani rejected the initiative.
"A reign of terror has been let loose by Indian security forces against a people who peacefully demand freedom from slavery and Indian imperialism," Geelani said.
So far, the latest violence in Kashmir appears to have little impact on efforts between India and Pakistan to improve ties that nose-dived after the 2008 attacks on India's commercial hub Mumbai, in which 166 people
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