The Hindu : Peace campaign will not stop: PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 22, 2002

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Peace campaign will not stop: PM

By Luv Puri

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at the military hospital, in Jammu on Tuesday, where victims of the May 14 terrorist attack are recovering. — AFP

Jammu May 21. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today expressed grief over the assassination of the Hurriyat leader, Abdul Gani Lone, whom he described as "a man of peace".

Speaking to presspersons at the military hospital here, Mr. Vajpayee said Mr. Lone had been working for peace in Jammu and Kashmir and those who had killed him were against the peace initiative. But the peace process initiated by Mr. Lone would not suffer any setback.

Mr. Vajpayee arrived here on a three-day visit to the State. Speaking at the airport, the Prime Minister, who is here to assess the ground situation, said, "I have come to the State, which has seen violence for the last many years. I want to see myself the ground realities and meet a cross-section of the people so that I get a first-hand account of the things prevailing in the State."

Asked about the "war clouds", Mr. Vajpayee looked at the clear sky and said there was no possibility of any war in the immediate future.

The Prime Minister was received at the airport by the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, G.C. Saxena, the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, senior Army officers, Cabinet Ministers and police officials. Mr. Vajpayee arrived at 6.55 p.m. and went to the military hospital to visit those injured in the Kalachuk terrorist attack, in which 32 persons were killed.

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