Srinagar: Appealing to the Centre to revive the Lahore Declaration for restoring peace in the region, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the PDP would not allow cross-LoC trade to be stopped. She was addressing a rally on the 18th foundation day of the Peoples Democratic Party here.

Srinagar: Appealing to the Centre to revive the Lahore Declaration for restoring peace in the region, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the PDP would not allow cross-LoC trade to be stopped. She was addressing a rally on the 18th foundation day of the Peoples Democratic Party here. 

“From the Wagah border flow charas and ganja, but no one says it must be closed. Just because a mistake occurs on the (Srinagar) Muzaffarabad road, we should not commit the mistake of closing it. In fact, we are in favour of opening more trade routes,” the CM said, referring to the seizure of 66 kg of narcotics from a truck at the Salamabad trade centre near Uri on July 21. 

Since then, trade along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad axis has remained suspended, raising fears it may be closed. Mehbooba, also the PDP chief, sought banking facilities on the cross-LoC trade route. “Full-body scanners must be installed,” she said.

Batting for nominating members to the Legislative Assembly from the other side of the LoC so that joint meetings could be held once a year, she said, “There are seats reserved in our Assembly for that Kashmir. We should decide together to make nominations for these seats. We should decide that this Assembly meets once in this Kashmir and once in that Kashmir every year so that we can talk about tourism, travel and opening of Sharda Peeth.”

Mehbooba also spoke about student exchanges. “I appeal to the people on the other side of Kashmir to send their children on a 15-day tour here and we will do likewise.” 

Stressing what the PDP had achieved since 2002 needed to be taken forward, she said the state was facing a challenge which was ideological. She recalled her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as saying: “You cannot imprison an idea, you cannot kill an idea. Kashmir is besieged and should be set free by opening roads.”

She made an appeal to Farooq Abdullah (NC), Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress) and the BJP to “help heal the pain of Kashmiris.” 

Senior PDP leader Muzaffar Baig appealed to hardline separatist Syed Ali Geelani to ask militants to shun violence, as “Islam bans terorism”.