Let jihadis announce ceasefire first: Ram Madhav

By Aarti Singh

NEW DELHI: Two days after the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir asked the Centre to initiate a unilateral “ceasefire” against terrorists starting from the month of Ramzan till the Amarnath yatra, BJP washed its hands of it.

Disapproving of the recommendation and objecting particularly to the word “ceasefire”, BJP national secretary Ram Madhav, also the party’s Kashmir minder, told TOI in an interview, “If by ceasefire the suggestion is to cease operations by forces against terrorists, that is not going to happen until terrorists stop terror activities. Since Ramzan is a holy month for Muslims, terrorists should announce a unilateral ceasefire. If they stop killing ordinary civilians and attacking forces, operations against them will automatically stop.”


To begin with, Madhav said, BJP had not agreed to the suggestion of unilateral “ceasefire” which was made at the all-party meeting headed by CM Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar. “Moreover, there was no formal proposal or recommendation made to the Centre,” he pointed out.

Mufti had claimed that both the ruling coalition and the opposition in J&K were unanimously in favour of suspending counter-insurgency operations against terrorists, starting from mid-May till ending August, for the sake of providing “relief to people” during the period of their religious obligations and festivals.

Madhav argued that the security forces will continue counter-terror operations till there is terror because “they are duty bound to save and secure interests of common people. We cannot let the security situation for ordinary people deteriorate.”