Mehbooba Mufti says Jammu and Kashmir is under ‘siege’

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, speaking at the ongoing India Ideas Conclave 2017 in Panaji, said that there might be a sense of helplessness prevailing in the minds of the people of the state but certainly not hopelessness.

"Idea of India is not separate from the idea of Jammu and Kashmir because it is the oneness between both. We have had problems in Kashmir for last so many years. We have the baggage of history but to me, having seen Jammu and Kashmir so closely for so many years, there is (a sense of) helplessness but not hopelessness," said Mufti.

"We have to have a different approach with the people who are with us and majority of the people are with us," she added.

She said that presently Jammu and Kashmir is under ‘blockade’ with several uncertainties plaguing the life of the people. 

"There is a mental siege, emotional siege, economic siege. Kashmir is under all kinds of sieges. You never know there will be a shutdown call followed by curfew and then there will be protest calls," she said.

She said that "when we think of Pakistan we should not think of Kashmir. When we think of Kashmir we should not think of Pakistan because Kashmir is ours."

"Maybe there is a percentage of people who are pro-Pakistan, there is a percentage of people who are pro-azadi. But the majority of the people in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are with the idea of Kashmir as an idea within India," asserted the chief minister.

India Ideas Conclave 2017 is organised by India Foundation. 

(With PTI inputs)