Panthers Party Meets Prime Minister and Demands Intervention

Panthers Party meets Prime Minister before midnight, Demands his intervention to save J&K from further disaster and choas

Eleven member delegation of the J&K National Panthers Party led by Prof. Bhim Singh met Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India on his invitation in Srinagar late last evening with senior leaders of the party.

The delegation included M/s. Harsh Dev Singh, MLA, Balwant Singh Mankotia, MLA, Yashpal Kundal, MLA, Syed Rafiq Shah, MLC, S. Daljit Singh, Vice-President JKNPP, Ms. Anita Thakur, General Secretary JKNPP, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Provincial President, Kashmir, Faqir Nath, Ex-MLA & Provincial President Jammu, Ch. Ghulam Ali Engineer, President, Young Panthers, Mohd. Ramzan Adv., Zonal President, Ladakh.

The Panthers Party submitted a 14-memorandum to the Prime Minister urging for taking urgent and desirable steps to make the LoC as irrelevant so that peace returns to Jammu and Kashmir ensuring its development.

The Panthers Party praised the role of Indian army in J&K since 1947 and urged the Prime Minister to deter those who have been accusing the Indian army just to exploit the sentiments of the innocent Kashmiris to grab power and money.

The party wanted immediate Delimitation of the Assembly Constituencies which has been a commitment of the Congress and other alliance parties. The party demanded General Amnesty to the political prisoners in J&K, full and fair relief to the Jammu migrants as per the Judgment of the Supreme Court, immediate removal of the corrupt, criminal, communal and tainted ministers from the government, honourable settlement of the issues of the SRT employees, SPOs and others. The party also assured cooperation to the Prime Minister in his efforts to build bridges with the angry leadership of Kashmiris.

The Panthers Party heavily argued in favour of reorganisation of J&K state on the basis of cultural, historical, linguistic and geographical identity of each region. It said that all the three regions namely, Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu have distinct and distinguished identities which need to be protected and promoted. They said that reorganisation of J&K is essential and also possible by amending Article 370 in the Constitution of India.

The party argued before the Prime Minister that this was the only way out to save J&K from disintegration and communal conflict as is being exploited by the communal forces in each region. The party also suggested that there should be single window system to speak on the affairs of J&K.

It regretted that some ministers from Kashmir in the Union government have been misusing their positions by exploiting the people in J&K by making unsavoury and undesirable statements in Kashmir. The Prime Minister was urged to authorise a spokesman to speak on the issues relating to J&K.

The Panthers Party regretted that foreign ministry has totally failed to take cognizance of the situation that has developed in Gilgit-Baltistan. The Party felt that foreign ministry should have reacted strongly to this attempt of Pakistan to convert its defacto occupation to dejure in Gilgit after 62 years of suppression and oppression against the Indian citizens in Gilgit-Baltistan which formed part of J&K.

The Panthers Party also regretted on the failure of the foreign ministry to condemn the OIC intervention vis-a-vis J&K which amounted to violation of Section 2 of the Charter of the United Nations for interfering in the internal affairs of India.

The Prime Minister gave patient hearing to the Panthers Party leaders for 30 minutes and assured that he would consider every suggestion of the party and shall do whatever is necessary in the interest of peace and security in J&K and rest of the country.