Fresh clashes took place between the students and security personnel in Srinagar on Monday as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed her concern over the prevailing unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. Mehbooba urged the Centre to follow the footsteps of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and take action to end the unrest in the state.
Violence erupted after students of SP Higher Secondary school marched and staged a protest on the busy Maulana Azad road in Srinagar.
The Jammu and Kashmir Government earlier in the day ordered to open all colleges and higher secondary schools.
Mehbooba met Modi earlier in the day and demanded that the ruling dispensation at the Centre must follow the footsteps of Vajpayee and reach out to the disillusioned and angry youth so as to restore a peaceful atmosphere for governance.
Talking to the media after the meeting out the Prime Minister’s official 7 Lok Kalyan Marg on the national capital, Mehbooba said a conducive atmosphere is required for talks and governance.
“We must start from where Vajpayee ji left… Modi ji has repeatedly said that he would follow the footsteps of Vajpayee ji, whose policy was of reconciliation, not confrontation. There is no option but to talk,” she asserted.
The meeting comes in the wake of recent incidents of violence, including the clashes between security forces and civilians during the Srinagar by-elections.
The Prime Minister had earlier on Sunday urged all the Chief Ministers to take care of the students from Jammu and Kashmir in their respective states. His assertion came after Mehbooba raised the issue following the assault of six Kashmiri students of Mewar University in Rajasthan by some locals.
