Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Friday said his government would continue its policy of providing the state with a healing touch by helping those who had suffered due to terrorist violence.
Welcoming Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a rally in Srinagar, the Mufti said the recent assembly election in the state had provided an opportunity to the people to turn a new leaf in their lives.
"The people of the state need to be complemented for defying the guns and voting for a change. They voted for peace and dignity and we should not disappoint them. But our biggest problem is that lakhs of our eduated youth are jobless and they need opportunities. I appeal to the Centre to open up job opportunities in the army and para-military forces for Kashmiri youth," he said.
Scoring a point of sorts over the critics of his healing touch policy, the chief minister asked Vajpayee to hand over letters of job appointments to women who had lost their close relatives to terrorist violence.
Stressing the need for an open and unconditional dialogue to solve the Kashmir tangle, the Mufti said: "The government
has appointed N N Vohra as its representative to hold talks with the representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, let us make use of this opportunity and go to Vohra and tell him about our problems."
He said while implementing the healing touch policy, the state government had at no stage said that the army and para-military forces should not take action against terrorists. "We should try to ensure that human rights are not violated. Neither I nor the prime minister have any magic wand to solve your problems overnight. It takes time to sort out a mess created over a period of 12 years," he said.
State Finance Minister Muzzafar Beig said that the Centre and the state government need to work together to ensure a better future for the people of Kashmir.