Disappointed at outcome of PM Modi’s all-party meet on J&K, says Gupkar Alliance

Speaking about the lack of confidence building measures, Alliance spokesperson M Y Tarigami said that it would have initiated the process of reaching out to the people of J&K.

File photo of members of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and others during a press conference at Jammu, on 7 Nov 2020 | PTI

Srinagar: The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Monday expressed disappointment over the outcome of the recent all-party meeting on J-K chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying there was lack of substantial confidence-building measures like release of political and other prisoners.

Alliance spokesperson and CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami said the confidence building measures (CBMs) would have initiated the much-needed process of reaching out to the people of J-K who are the biggest stakeholders and sufferers of the J-K problem .

All the members of the PAGD expressed their disappointed at the outcome of the Delhi meeting especially at the absence of any CBMs such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails and lack of concrete steps to end the alleged “atmosphere of suppression” that has “choked” J-K since 2019, the spokesperson said in a statement.

The PAGD met on Sunday evening under the chairmanship of Farooq Abdullah — the National Conference (NC) president — at his residence.

The meeting was attended by alliance vice-chairperson and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Tarigami, NC leader Hasnain Masoodi, Peoples Movement chief Javed Mustafa Mir and Awami National Conference senior vice president Muzaffar Ahmed Shah.

The meeting was called to discuss the recent meeting chaired by the prime minister in Delhi on June 24, the spokesperson said.

The PAGD which seeks the restoration of the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir which was revoked by the Centre on August 5, 2019 — said it will fight together using constitutional, legal and political means to reverse the Centre’s decision.

The PAGD reiterated its commitment to fight together to reverse the unconstitutional and unacceptable changes foisted on the people of J-K on 5th August 2019 using all constitutional, legal and political means at its disposal.

The PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible, Tarigami said.