New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said he had personally asked Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to ignore cases against first-time stone pelters.
Earlier this year, Jammu and Kashmir government has approved withdrawal of cases registered against 9,730 people involved in stone-pelting incidents, including first-time offenders, between 2008 and 2017.
“We have forgiven first-time stone pelters. I spoke to the CM of Kashmir and told her that children who were involved in stone pelting for the first time need to be let go. They might have been influenced by other people and are young children. We need to give them a second chance,” Rajnath Singh said at the News18 Rising India Summit.
The Home Minister further said that the government had made no difference between the children in Kashmir and those in the other parts of the country.
Singh also said that the government wanted a permanent solution to the Kashmir crisis, and that the state will always remain a part of India.
“Kashmir is, was and will be ours always. We want a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem and we are open to speak to anyone,” the Home Minister said, adding that government interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma was accommodating and moving forward in the direction to resolving issues.
Singh also highlighted the government’s efforts in dealing with the problem of Naxalism in the country and said that cases of Naxalism had reduced to just 1,000 as compared to what it was before 2004.
“The battle against Naxals can’t be won through bullets. We are trying to reach those areas which have remained unreachable since independence. Naxalism was a huge problem for India but in the last 4 years we have now achieved major success in that space. There were police and army officials dying because of this. We have brought it down heavily,” he said.
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