NEW DELHI, Nov 5: The chief minister of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir has urged New Delhi to declare a ceasefire in the region during Ramazan while the region’s leftist leaders have asked Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to resume peace talks with Pakistan, news reports said on Tuesday.

“The Centre has announced such a ceasefire in the past as a good gesture and they can do it again,” Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed told reporters in Jammu.

He also advocated initiation of talks between New Delhi and militant groups fighting for independence. “We will urge the Centre to hold unconditional dialogue with militants,” Mufti Sayeed said.

Asked to comment on the willingness of the Centre to talk to Kashmiri militants “unconditionally”, he said, “We will prevail upon them in this direction in the best interest of the country and to bring permanent peace and normalcy in the state.”

Sayeed insisted that unconditional talks with separatists in the state was a must to bring about a positive change in the situation, according to several reports from the region.

Sayeed’s People’s Democratic Party is supported by the Communist Party of India-Marxist which won two or three seats in the recent polls.

The CPI-M general secretary for the Kashmir unit, Yousuf Tarigami, told reporters in a separate meeting that his party would demand a resumption of talks between India and Pakistan as part of the process to bring peace in Kashmir.

“The Centre should initiate sustained and sincere talks with all sections of the population to restore lasting peace in Jammu and Kashmir,” Tarigami told a large meeting in Hanwara in the frontier Kupwara district on Monday evening.

He appealed to Vajpayee to use the opportunity provided by the historic assembly election and initiate a dialogue with a cross- section of the population to ensure peace in the militancy-ridden state.