Envoys' Jammu Kashmir Visit
Fair and frank discussion held with foreign diplomats in Jammu Kashmir: Ex MLA Bukhari
In an exclusive interview to a tv channel, former Peoples' Democratic Party MLA, Altaf Bukhari spoke about the recent visit of a delegation to Jammu and Kashmir and the interaction which the local politicians had with them.
‘Frank discussion'
Speaking on the envoys' visit, Bukhari said, “We were invited to a lunch meeting with the envoys. They wanted to know the situation pre-August 5 and post-August 5. We had a free and frank discussion where we told them how the people in the Valley felt about the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A and what the current situation was.”
“It was a clear discussion on what is happening and the difficulties faced, where we told them that difficulties were faced by children, businessmen, shopkeepers, hoteliers, and the tourism sector as a whole – including trade. So we did put across our point of view on different subjects and even they had certain questions regarding statehood – what it meant, what is the difference between a UT and statehood, and why we were asking for a domicile for the land and jobs,” former MLA added.
“The credit goes to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who opted to not come on to the streets and to the security forces who did their job to protect the citizens. Both the sides deserve credit and if the government wants credit on this then I have no hesitation in giving it.”
Regarding the security situation in the Valley, he said, “The credit goes to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who opted to not come on to the streets and to the security forces who did their job to protect the citizens. Both the sides deserve credit and if the government wants credit on this then I have no hesitation in giving it.”
Earlier this week, envoys of 15 countries visited Jammu and Kashmir for two days to understand the on-ground situation. The visit came after requests were made to get a first-hand idea.
At his weekly press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar stated that the objective of the visit and said the government had made efforts to normalise the situation and wanted to have representatives of other countries visit the region and see it for themselves. The purpose of the visit was to see how things had progressed and had been restored to a large extent after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
