The BJP opposed the ceasefire, a day after J&K chief minister Mufti, claimed that everybody in the meeting was of consensus that an appeal should be made to government of India that they should consider unilateral ceasefire during Ramazan and Amarnath Yatra

SRINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party, an alliance partner with PDP in the J&K government has rejected the suggestion of unilateral ceasefire in the state, which chief minister Mehbooba Mufti claimed was put forth consensually in an All Party meeting convened here in Srinagar earlier. 

The BJP said that this was not the right time to announce ceasefire as armed forces have managed to control the situation and bring back normalcy to the Valley.

“150 or 200 stone pelters or militants cannot dictate policy. We are not even in favor of discussing the suggestion of ceasefire at any level. Kashmir deserves peace and people want to live peacefully,” BJP spokesperson, Arun Gupta told ET.

The BJP spokesperson, Gupta, who was also attended the All party meeting, said that the suggestion of ceasefire was put forth by one legislator, Engineer Rashid and it cannot be construed as decision of everybody who was present there.

“We cannot give breather to militants to re-group. We cannot allow things to go out of hand again. It is not done, when army has put so much effort to bring normalcy in the state. They cannot highjack tourist season in Valley,” said Gupta.

The BJP opposed the ceasefire, a day after J&K chief minister Mufti, claimed that everybody in the meeting was of consensus that an appeal should be made to government of India that they should consider unilateral ceasefire during Ramazan and Amarnath Yatra here so that common people get some relief as they are hugely inconvenienced during encounters and search operations. She requested government of India to consider approach of Atal Bihari Vajpayee who announced ceasefire during his tenure in 2000. The suggestion was made ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Valley on May 19, when he is inaugurating several projects in Jammu and Srinagar.

“The suggestion is nice, but the Army has a professional point of view regarding the situation and it should supersede the political point of view. Tomorrow people will ask to withdraw army from borders, is it possible?” a BJP legislator from Jammu, R S Pathania told ET.

The BJP opposed the move on a day when PDP-BJP elected BJP legislator and former J&K deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh, as new speaker of the J&K Assembly in Srinagar. The opposition demanded that the government should convene assembly session for some days to deliberate on deteriorating situation in Kashmir.

“Everybody wants peace and all of us should work to live in harmony. But militancy has to end. The operations against militants have to continue,” another BJP legislator, who recently resigned as a minister, Chander Prakash Ganga told ET.