Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 3 : National Conference (NC) Vice president Omar Abdullah today welcomed the renewed bilateral engagement between India and Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir. He said that after a long hiatus the changed understanding of both the countries will act as forerunner of peace and prosperity in the region.
Commenting on a series of initiatives being taken by the Government of India, Omar said the renewed outlook of both the countries gives an inkling of a changed mind set towards Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the evolving situation has made it pretty clear that the outlook of both the countries has undergone a big change and has been replaced with a policy of peaceful engagement. He said it was a welcome step that must be carried forward positively.
While interacting with a series of party delegations at Nawa-e-Subha, Headquarters in Srinagar, he said: “We have been pleading with the GOI to restore 4G services over a period of time, but all of a sudden the service was restored. The let-up to the woes of people wasn’t confined to that measure only. Over the period of time we saw how both the neighboring countries came up with a DGMO level talk on the cessation of violence on the LOC, IB”, he said.
“It was much later, to our surprise though that we were able to learn that the DGMO level formations were a product of diplomatic negotiations, which all of us were unmindful of”, he said.
“Reports of allowing Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to offer congregational prayers at Jamia Masjid after 18 months also gives an insinuation about the changed attitude we hail on account of it being in sync with our stated policy underscoring goodwill between India and Pakistan as a means to foster peace in J&K,” he said.
”At this point we have to concentrate more on making our party stronger at grass root level. The primary goal is to make the party stronger to face all the challenges which the people of Jammu and Kashmir are facing. But the idea of making the party stronger cannot be realized without the active participation of women folk”, he said.
Omar said that despite all the undue intervention from the administration the party workers were able to take on the challenges effectively on their own during the DDC elections. He asked the workers to keep up the spirit and step up their efforts to figure out the loopholes and subsequently plug them.
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