Jammu, August 17
The Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti (AYSS), spearheading the agitation over the Amarnath land row across the Jammu region for the past over 45 days, has spurned the offer of Governor N.N. Vohra to hold talks.
Vohra had dashed off a letter to the samiti inviting the latter to hold a dialogue so as to end the stalemate. A spokesperson of the sangharsh samiti said: “The samiti had received a letter from the Governor yesterday wherein the samiti was invited to hold talks.” “However, there had been no mention whatsoever of any proposal in the letter forcing us to spurn the offer,” he added.
Without any specific proposal nothing would emerge and hence the samiti today decided not to hold talks until there was something concrete in the offer, he said.
“In response to the Governor’s letter the samiti today expressed its inability to hold talks. If the Governor sincerely wants to end
the deadlock then he should come out with some specific proposal,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jammu continued to remain shut for the 25th day today due to bandh call given by the samiti over. After a lull for a few days, fresh protests were held in Muthi on the outskirts of the city, where a large number of protesters came on roads and burnt tyres on the Jammu-Akhnoor highway. The protesters were demanding restoration of the forestland back to the shrine board.
Protest rallies were held in different parts of the city. “We will not accept anything less than the restoration of the land snatched from the board,” Sanjeev Kumar, one of the agitators, said, adding: “It has become a do or die situation for us and we would continue to protest till our demand is met.”
Shops and business establishments continued to remain closed and transport remained off the road. Though a few shops opened in some parts of the city in the morning, these were also closed later in the day as a mark of protest.
The samiti leadership, which is in New Delhi to meet the national leadership to form a consensus, has decided to intensify its stir.
“The communally provocative statements of Mehabooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah, leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, National Conference and the PDP have polarised the state on regional and communal lines,” Brigadier Suchet Singh (retd), co-convener of the sangharsh samiti, said.
