Former prime minister Manmohan Singh will visit Jammu and Kashmir next week. (file Photo)
A day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Srinagar on a four-day visit to the state with an “open mind” and ”ready to discuss Kashmir issue with all stake holders,” a high-level Congress policy and planning group headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is arriving in Jammu on a two-day visit on Sunday for meeting with different delegations of civil society.
According to party sources, the other members of the group include senior Congress leader Karan Singh, former Home Minister P Chidambaram, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, AICC general secretary Ambika Soni, besides representatives of the party from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions. They will straightway go to the government guest house at Canal Road, where they will interact with senior party leaders at the executive meeting before lunch.
After lunch, they will also meet leaders of mainstream opposition parties, besides different delegations of civil society from different walks of life. Those scheduled to meet them include, delegations of the Bar Association, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pahari-speaking people, Dogri Sanstha, ex-servicemen, leaders of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes, apart from minority communities, displaced persons from West Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) among others.
The delegation will return to Delhi on Monday morning and visit Kashmir next week, sources said.
The visit of senior Congress leaders assumes significance as it has come amidst raging controversy over Article 35A, continued unrest in some parts of Kashmir, growing voices in Jammu region against the stay of Rohingya Muslims, apart from increased incidents of cross border firing and infiltration along the Line of Control among other things.
