NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to India-held Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday with a roadmap for a healing touch — saying “ekta” (unity) and “mamata” (compassion) could be the “twin mantras” for the region.

Mr Modi’s unusually soft comments are being seen as particularly important as they come two days ahead of a visit to New Delhi by US Secretary of State John Kerry. He will arrive from Dhaka on Tuesday.

The United States has expressed concern at the violence in which scores of civilians have been killed and over 5,000 injured in firing by security personnel.

Violence broke out as after the killing of a young militant on July 8 by Indian security forces.

“We encourage all sides to make efforts to find a peaceful solution to this,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on July 30 when asked about the ongoing violence in Kashmir. “We are obviously concerned by the violence and we want to see the tensions de-escalated,” he said.

“From the interactions I had with all parties on Kashmir, one thing emerged, which can be put in simple words as Ekta and Mamata. These two things were the basic mantra,” the prime minister said in his monthly radio address ‘Mann ki Baat’.

“It is the view of all of us, of 125 crore people from a pradhan of a village to the prime minister, that if any life is lost in Kashmir, whether of any youth or any security man, that loss is ours”.

He said all parties were united on Kashmir. “They sent a message to the world, to the separatists and reached out to the people of Kashmir.”

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2016

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...