Kashmir All-Party Meet: Gupkar Alliance Agrees To Attend Meeting Called By PM Modi On Thursday

National Conference chief and PAGD chairperson Farooq Abdullah confirmed the same after a meeting of the alliance leaders at his residence in Srinagar.

(File Photos/ Getty)

Srinagar: The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) Tuesday agreed to attend the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the erstwhile state in the national capital on Thursday.

National Conference chief and PAGD chairperson Farooq Abdullah confirmed the same after a meeting of the alliance leaders at his residence in Srinagar.

“Mehbooba ji, Mohammed Tarigami sahib and I will attend the all-party meeting called by the Prime Minister. We hope to keep our agenda before the Prime Minister and the Home Minister,” he said.

Asserting the alliance’s stand is clear, Abdullah said they will put forth their views before Prime Minister Modi.

“We will talk about everything as there isn’t a fixed agenda for the all-party meeting,” he added.

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) supremo Mehbooba Mufti on her part said the alliance came together to discuss “what has been taken from us”.

“It is wrong, illegal and unconstitutional. Till you restore this, you cannot bring peace to the region,” Mufti said while referring to Article 370.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile state further said they are ready for dialogue, adding it was decided after “consensus in the alliance” that everybody invited will attend the meeting.

Mufti, however, said the ruling dispensation at the Centre should have released all the political prisoners for a conducive atmosphere.

“Many prisoners are ill in jails. So, the political prisoners should be released and those who are lodged in jails outside Kashmir should be shifted back,” she added.

Echoing similar sentiments, CPI (M) leader MY Tarigami said the agenda of the meeting has not yet been informed to them by the Prime Minister.

“We will reiterate the agenda of the PAGD. We will appeal to the PM to reconsider the guarantees given to us under the Constitution,” he said.

The PAGD, a six-party alliance of mainstream parties, came into existence after Prime Minister Modi-led government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.

The remarks come as Prime Minister Modi has scheduled an all-party meeting on June 24 post the abrogation and the split of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.