Delhi should restart talks to address issue in Kashmir, says Jammu and Kashmir government

SRINAGAR: The death toll in Kashmir violence following the killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani climbed to 32 on Tuesday, with the death of a Delhi University student who was in the valley on holidays and injured in police firing. The number of injured in four days of violence is put at nearly 1,400.

The Jammu & Kashmir government said it wasn’t anticipating “such a huge response” to Wani’s killing and urged the Centre to start a process of political engagement in the state to address the problem. Meanwhile, separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq wrote to United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon seeking effective intervention to “stop the killing” of unarmed civilians in Kashmir.

After Wani’s death, Muzaffarabadbased United Jehad Council and Hizb ul Mujahideen chief Syed Sallahuddin has named Mehmood Ghaznavi, probably a nom de guerre for one of Wani’s colleagues, as the new commander of the organisation in Kashmir.

The valley continued to remain under curfew even as the Hurriyat has called for strike till Wednesday. In order to control flow of information, the government has blocked mobile Internet and also snapped mobile network in some parts of South Kashmir.

“We had never anticipated this level of response. It is not spontaneous and has a history. New Delhi has to restart the political process of engagement to address issues of the state,” J&K government spokesperson and senior minister Naem Akhtar told ET.

The student who died on Tuesday morning was studying business at Delhi’s Zakir Hussain College and was in Kashmir on Eid holidays. He was injured in police and CRPF firing on Monday evening in the Bijbehara area of South Kashmir. In the four major hospitals of Srinagar, injured continued to come in from across valley.