Jammu & Kashmir demography will not be changed, Amit Shah tells Altaf Bukhari

New Delhi: Even as Union home minister Amit Shah assured of no alteration in demography of Jammu and Kashmir, the process to initiate political dialogue in the Valley started with the release of newly-formed Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari in September last year on health grounds.

“During our meeting with the home minister, we raised several misgivings about abrogation of Article 370, including domicile and land rights for people of Kashmir,” Bukhari told ET after meeting Shah on Sunday. Bukhari refu-ted allegations that his newly-formed party was a B team of BJP . The two sides took up 40 issues related to J&K. According to the Apni Party statement, Shah agreed to facilitate political activists, who are under preventive detention and are lodged outside J&K jails to talk to their families over phone , within a week.

“The gulf between people of Kashmir and people in Jammu needs to be reduced with a promise and purposeful assurance by the country’s top leadership that there shall be no discrimination in development and opportunities on the basis of region or religion,” Bukhari said.


Shah said, “Visible changes will be seen on the ground in the next three to four months.” The delegation was told that the statehood of J&K will be restored at an early opportunity and “this is also good for India’s interest, as the region is a border area”. “All decisions on relaxation of restrictions in J&K that were being taken by the Prime Minister and implemented by the home ministry are based on ground realities and not due to any pressure,” Shah informed the leaders of Apni Party.

A statement from MHA said, “Shah referred to steps like release of people from preventive detention, restoration of internet, relaxation in curfew and added that even political prisoners will be freed in times to come as the main objective of the governmentis that not a single person should die, be it a common Kashmiri or securitypersonnel.”