PDP rally in Srinagar calls for Indo-Pak peace

Opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Monday took out a rally in Srinagar ‘to express concern at the deterioration in security environment and the need to mend it through peaceful means’.

The rally which began from the PDP headquarters in uptown Srinagar was led by the party president Mehbooba Mufti and other senior leaders who culminated at the city centre Lal Chowk and was attended by thousands of people chanting slogans in favour of peace between the two neighbouring countries.

The rallyists carried placards which read ‘Peace not War’ as they marched towards Lal Chowk shouting slogans. “Jo Jang Ka Yar Hai, Gaddaar Hai, Gaddaar Hai (War supporters are traitors)”.

Authorities had made elaborate security arrangements for the rally with contingents of police and paramilitary, central reserve police force deployed along the route and at Lal Chowk.

Talking to journalists, Mehbooba Mufti said that her party’s rally was for peace as in the event of hostilities it is the people of Jammu and Kashmir who suffer.

“For the past one and a half months there has been tension on the borders because of the exchange fire. Whenever such incidents happen it is people of Kashmir who get killed on both sides of the border,” she said.

Mehbooba said that ‘Kashmir should become a bridge of friendship between the two nations and that was the yearning of today’s rally’.

Image: PDP supporters display banners during a rally in Srinagar on Monday

Photograph: Umar Ganie