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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister-designate Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has been promised 'full support' by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a senior leader of the People's Democratic Party told rediff.com.
Sayeed met the prime minister on Sunday evening for more than an hour, but described it as a 'courtesy call'.
"Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani too has offered full support to Mufti's government in economic and the political field. This is encouraging news for us," the senior PDP leader said.
Though Sayeed has announced that the Prevention of Terrorism Act would not be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, PDP sources said it would take some time for the new government to release All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik.
Both have been booked under the Public Safety Act also.
The sources also denied that the party has already prepared a list of 400-500 militants to be released by the government.
"We have no such list with us. But one of the top party leaders would be meeting Director General of the Jammu and Kashmir Police A K Suri to find out about prisoners who do not have serious cases against them," one source said.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that Ghulam Nabi Azad would be the convenor of the coordination committee to be set up for the smooth functioning of the coalition government.
"Besides Azad, we would have representatives of all the constituent parties in the coordination committee. The new committee would be announced at a news conference in Srinagar by Mufti Saheb," a senior congress party leader told rediff.com.
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