By IANS,
Jammu : The Congress will play a critical role in facilitating dialogue between separatists and other groups in Kashmir and the central government in a bid to achieve peace in the restive Valley where life has been paralysed for almost three months now, a senior party leader said Saturday.
“It will be our effort to set up the dialogue table and facilitate dialogue between all shades of opinion, including those who are not in the mainstream, to talk and resolve the issues across the table,” state Congress chief Saif-ud-Din Soz said at a meeting of party workers at Samba, 40 km south of Jammu.
Soz said that the Congress, which was ruling at the centre as the leading partner of the United Progressive Alliance and in partnership with National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir had a
“historical role to play at this juncture”.
He said the Congress “would facilitate dialogue with one and all in the Valley”.
“That’s our prime responsibility as lasting peace would visit the Valley only through dialogue.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had declared while speaking to an all-party delegation, barring the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, from the state that the government was “open to dialogue with all those willing to shun the violence”.
Congress leaders have been trying to promote resolution of Kashmir crisis through dialogue after the Valley erupted with massive protests. The clashes between stone-throwing mobs and security forces have left 64 people, including children, dead and hundreds of others injured.