J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti arrives to inspect the guard of honour in the Civil Secretariat compound in Srinagar. (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)
Calling Sunday’s killing of civilians in south Kashmir a tragedy, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said there is a “need to find a middle path to prevent bloodshed” in the state. “It is a painful day for us today…because of the tragedy that happened yesterday in which five civilians were killed,” Mufti said on the sidelines of the opening of the Civil Secretariat in summer capital Srinagar.
“My appeal today, through your medium (the media), to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the people of India, and the government there (in Delhi), is that find out a middle path so that this bloodshed (is stopped),” she said.
On Sunday, five people, including three teenage boys, were killed when security forces opened fire to stop a group of stone-throwing protesters in south Kashmir’s Shopian area. The protests started after five top militants were trapped and subsequently killed in a gunfight in Badigam village of Shopian.
Chief Minister Mufti said that children of poor people are being killed. “If there is a stone, if there a gun, it is in the hands of children of poor people,” she said. “There is need to find away to prevent this bloodshed.” In an apparent reference to the killing of five militants, she said that Islam doesn’t permit embracing death at such a young age.
On Sunday, Mufti had called the killings “depressing” and had pitched for a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir problem.