Prepare a road map for 'azaadi', interlocutors tell students

Dilip Padgaonkar, who heads the group of Centre’s interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir, asked students on Monday to prepare a road map for azaadi by the time they return for a second visit to the Valley.  “Next time when we come [to Kashmir], let us discuss azaadi and its economic and strategic implications. We have to discuss it threadbare. If this is your wish, we can discuss it,” he told a group of university students here.

“Prepare a road map with a time-line which can be delivered. Make it precise, make it practical, which can be achieved in a time-bound manner,” the journalist told them.

The students gave the interlocutors a three-point formula for reducing the trust-deficit. This included the demand for immediate release of students and youths who have been arrested on charges of stone-pelting during the unrest, repeal of all the “draconian laws” and demilitarisation of the state.

“Such steps will help reduce the trust-deficit,” a student said. Padgaonkar said he wished to see more schools and fewer jails in Kashmir.  Educationist MM Ansari asked students to find ways which will help in solving the issue. When Ansari asked them as to what their priority was, a girl student said “solution of the Kashmir issue is our first priority.”

“How can we think about our future when our present is not secure,” she added. A student from Jammu, however, said that “partition will not be acceptable at any cost”.