Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday ruled out any talks with Pakistan while inviting the Kashmiri youths to the Indian mainstream and making clear that the Narendra Modi government would fully uproot terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

Shah was addressing his first ever public rally in the Kashmir valley, not only after the abrogation of the Article 370 in August 2019 but also after the BJP assumed power in May 2014. Held at the playground of the Government Degree College at Baramulla, this was arguably the largest attended mainstream political rally in Kashmir valley in the last over 20 years. In respect to the Azan, the call for afternoon prayers from a nearby mosque, Shah paused his speech for about a minute.

While repeating his announcement which he made at a massive public meeting at Rajouri in Jammu on Tuesday, Home Minister declared extension of the Scheduled Tribe to the Paharis as per the recommendations of Justice Sharma Commission. He said that the recommendation of including the Paharis and granting them reservations in the government jobs and education would be adopted by the Union Government with necessary amendment to the law in the Parliament.

Shah asserted that this benefit to the Paharis, on the pattern of the Gujjars and Bakerwals, would not have been possible without the abrogation of Article 370 which the Modi government did on 5 August 2019. He said that the National Conference patron and the former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was provoking the Gujjar community that inclusion of the Paharis in the ST category would reduce their quota of reservations. “This is my assurance and commitment to the Gujjar brethren that they would not lose even one percent of their current share of the reservation”, Shah asserted, evoking an applause from the gathering.

Shah said that Farooq Abdullah and the PDP President and another former Chief Minister were “misleading the Kashmiris” with regard to abrogation of Article 370 and keeping the separatist sentiment aflame among the youths. “A son’s coffin is the heaviest for all parents. It wrenches hearts. As many as 42,000 poor people have been killed (in Kashmir’s militancy since 1989). No leader’s son has ever been killed. They were all poor peoples’ children. We are committed to eliminate terrorism from its root. We will make Kashmir a paradise”, Shah asserted.

Referring to the Abdullahs and the Muftis, Shah said that they were asking India to talk to Pakistan, to listen to Pakistan. “We tell them we will listen and talk to you people. Let it be clear that the Modi government will never tolerate terrorism and the same will be uprooted with full might”, Shah said while inviting the Kashmiri youths to eschew violence and return to the Indian mainstream.

“These families looted J&K resources for their personal benefit and did nothing for the common man,” Shah said about the families of the NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and the PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He said that the process of updating the electoral rolls was currently underway. As and when it would be completed, Assembly elections would be announced in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

Shah said that Baramulla was once a hot bed of militancy and terrorism was commonplace but “today this place is the hot spot of tourists. Sprawling Gulmarg, the skiers’ paradise, the shrines and the breath-taking snow-clad mountains of this place are attracting tourists in large numbers,” he said.

The Home Minister praised Maqbool Sherwani for his role against Pakistani invaders in 1947. Then a young worker of Sheikh Abdullah’s National Conference, Sherwani was killed by the tribal invaders backed by the Pakistani army allegedly for misleading them.

Shah counted a large number of projects, including medical colleges, IIMs, IITs, roads and power projects which the BJP government had either allotted or executed in Jammu and Kashmir.

On the last day of his three-day visit to J&K today, Shah is scheduled to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone through the virtual mode for a number of projects, including three transit accommodations of 864 flats for the Kashmiri Pandits at Baba Daryadin Ganderbal, Allowpora Shopian and Odina (Sumbal) in Bandipora district.

The Home Minister is also scheduled to take a security review meeting with the Lieutenant Governor and senior Police, Army, paramilitary, intelligence and security officials at Srinagar before returning to New Delhi in the evening.

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