The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration or the PAGD on Monday said that they were disappointed with the “outcome” of the all-party meeting held by the Prime Minister, saying there was lack of substantial confidence building measures like release of political and other prisoners.
The PAGD also demanded that the assembly elections must be held in Jammu and Kashmir only after restoration of full Statehood.
In a press statement today, the PAGD spokesman M Y Tarigami said that the PAGD reiterated its commitment to fight together to “reverse the unconstitutional and unacceptable changes foisted on the people of J&K on 5th August 2019 using all constitutional, legal and political means at its disposal”.
PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible, said the CPI (M) leader, in the statement.
“All the members of the PAGD expressed their disappointed (sic) at the outcome of the Delhi meeting especially at the absence of any substantial Confidence Building Measures such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails & taking concrete steps to end the siege & atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019. This would have initiated the much needed process of reaching out to the people of J&K who are the biggest stakeholders & sufferers of the J&K problem,” read the statement.
“As far as restoration of statehood is concerned, it has been BJP’s commitment on the floor of the Parliament & they must honour their word. So any assembly election must be held only after restoration of full statehood for J&K. To this end the PAGD has decided to reach out to other political parties in J&K with a view to take a common position on the issue.”
The PAGD leaders had met on Sunday evening under the chairmanship of Dr Farooq Abdullah at his residence in Srinagar.
The meeting, attended by vice-chairperson Mehbooba Mufti, M. Y. Tarigami, Justice(retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Javed Mustafa Mir and Muzaffar Ahmed Shah, was called to discuss the recent meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in Delhi on 24th June.