Former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Monday issued a joint appeal for maintaining communal harmony across the country and urged the Centre to ensure safety and security Kashmiris in other States.
The appeal came against the backdrop of reports of attacks on Kashmiris in some parts of the country following the terror incident, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed on Thursday. The two leaders underscored the need to maintain communal harmony across the country.
By “attacking, terrorising, intimidating Kashmiris, the youngsters of Kashmir are implicitly being told that they have no future outside of the valley,” National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said.
“Intimidating” Kashmiris was aimed at creating a wedge between different communities in India, they said.
“We should not allow terror to divide us. By using such incidents to divide us, we fall into the trap of those behind the attack on CRPF soldiers; we are wittingly or unwittingly playing to the tunes of our enemies,” they said in the appeal.
They asserted that attacking the innocent because of their ethnicity or religion was “no way to honour the sacrifice of the CRPF men”.
“Kashmiri Muslims or the Muslims of Jammu didn’t attack our CRPF jawans the other day, terrorists did. This violence is a convenient tool by some to shift the blame. Let us unite against terror, let’s not allow terror to divide us,” the NC and PDP leaders said.