India, Pak must act in mature way on ceasefire violations: Mehbooba Mufti

Jammu: Asking India and Pakistan not to make people of Jammu and Kashmir “scapegoats”, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Friday said the two countries must act in a mature manner over ceasefire violations.

“We should not be made scapegoats,” Mehbooba told reporters here on Friday after undertaking a day-long visit to forward border areas along International Border in R S Pura, Arnia and Bishna belts of Jammu district on Thursday.

She said India should strongly take up with Pakistan the issue of ceasefire violations and both the countries should act in a “mature” manner. The PDP MP also appealed to the Centre to hold the defence ministers of both sides responsible for maintaining the ceasefire.

“Both the governments do not know about problems (faced by people) in border areas in the wake of ceasefire violations,” she said, adding, “It (ceasefire) was the biggest gift to J&K by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. I salute him for his vision and courage. The sanity of border truce should be restored,” she added.

She said she was “disappointed” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “not working” on the lines of Vajpayee’s agenda. She said the cancellation of Indo-Pak foreign secretary-level talks by the government was an “immature” step as the meeting between separatists and Pakistan leaders was nothing new.

PTI