Date:10/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/10/stories/2005051006051200.htm

National

Give peace a chance: Mufti

Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Monday asked gun-wielding youth to give up violence and help the Government achieve everlasting peace in the region.

"Those who are still holding the gun should give peace a chance. When the process of dialogue and normalisation is on, the gun should stop talking, " he told mediapersons on the eve of the annual `Darbar Move' here. The civil Secretariat would function here for the next six months.

He said the termination of animosity between India and Pakistan created a good atmosphere. It augured well for the State and its people, who were now feeling more relaxed than before.

"Only a handful of people have chosen by design not to recognise the change." After the reopening of the Jhelum Valley Road between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, the focus shifted to plying of trucks across the Line of Control.