Ramadan ceasefire truce causes fresh conflict between BJP & Mehabooba

The Ramadan has come to an end, so had the ceasefire truce too has come to an end with the army once again firing at the militants.

The Center’s decision to resume the anti-terror operations has caused a rift between the ruling BJP and Mehabooba Mufti’s party.

The BJP chief, Amit Shah, has called its state ministers to New Delhi to discuss the issue today, sources said.

While the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) states that the ruling party needs to reach out to the separatists, the Centre argues that the separatists lost an opportunity as they did not take a cue from civil society, the sources said.

The Cente’s Special Representative Dineshwar Sharma — who is free to reach out to all stakeholders — is in the Valley.

The Central government’s special peace initiative in the Kashmir Valley — suspension of cordon and search operations — was taken in view of providing respite to the people during the holy month. But data showed the terror activities had more than doubled in this period.

On the eve of Eid, senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead by terrorists in Srinagar. With it, any faint hope of an extension of the ceasefire ended.

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In a series of tweets on Sunday, Union home minister Rajnath Singh announced that security forces have been directed to resume operations.

“It was expected that everyone will cooperate in ensuring the success of this initiative. While the Security Forces have displayed exemplary restraint during this period, the terrorists have continued with their attacks, on civilians and SFs, resulting in deaths and injuries,” Mr Singh tweeted.

The ceasefire initiative was the brainchild of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, and the state BJP unit had fought it tooth and nail. It had even asked the Centre to spike her recommendation, arguing that “we should not do anything to demoralise the security forces”. Union minister Jitendra Singh had suggested that leaders advocating the ceasefire were “playing politics”.

The alliance between the BJP and the PDP, parties with widely divergent views, had been shaky since the beginning. The rift showed from time to time — over PDP’s promises of talks with separatists, the proposal to remove the AFSPA (the Armed Forces’ Special Powers Act under which grants special powers to the army in insurgency-hit areas), and even the rollout of the government’s flagship Goods and Services Tax.  

In March, concerns over the future of the alliance surfaced after the PDP sacked its minister Haseeb Drabu. Since the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the father of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Mr Drabu had been a key interlocutor between the two parties.

On that occasion too, the top BJP leadership had summoned the state leaders to discuss possible repercussions on the alliance.