New Delhi : The BJPs national general secretary and its Kashmir point person Ram Madhav on Saturday said Pakistan-based militant commander Syed Salahuddin was masterminding the ongoing unrest in the valley through Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
In an interview with India Today TV, Madhav said the two-month long unrest – the deadliest the valley has suffered in six years – had posed no threat to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government in the state.
He said the government was committed to “bring back normalcy” in the valley before Eid – a Muslim festival that is being celebrated on Tuesday.
“Stone-pelting needs to be stopped,” he said and blamed United Jehad Council commander Syed Salahuddin, who is based in Muzaffarabad – the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir – for sponsoring the agitation in Kashmir.
“It is led by Syed Salahuddin and certain sections get influenced by him. Geelani is leading the campaign in the valley. There is no doubt about that. But the real masterminds are from across the border,” Madhav said.
The former RSS leader, credited to have cobbled together the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, denied there were any differences between the ruling partners.
“We have confidence in the PDP-BJP government led by (Chief Minister) Mehbooba Mufti. It will last its full term of six years,” Madhav told India Today TV.
He was asked if the Kashmir unrest, which has left 78 people dead, had caused fissures in the coalition government.
Referring to MP Muzaffar Hussain Baig’s series of media interviews asking Mehbooba to step down because the agenda of alliance had not been implemented, Madhav said the PDP leader should have taken up the matter with his party rather than speaking publicly about it.
He said the situation in Kashmir was “definitely disturbing and had caused “concern for all of us”.