Right from Mirwiaz Umar Farooq to Farooq Abdullah every Kashmiri leader is showing by his statements about the state-of-affairs in Kashmir Valley and the impact of hard policy on the ground situation. As Amit Shah has taken over as Home Minister of the country, most of the mainstream political parties of Kashmir are waiting for change in the policy especially in the backdrop of Pulwama suicide attack.
Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Engineer Rasheed and others while reacting to the new cabinet said that it was the time for New Delhi to change the hard policy and take tangible steps for the ease of situation in Kashmir Valley. BJP government post Pulwama attack has acted very hard against separatists and most of them have been arrested and booked in different cases. In the past few months army and security forces have conducted cordon and search operations, resulting in killing of most of the active top militants in South Kashmir including Zakir Musa. Militants were on run in South Kashmir and they have been able to dominate the area completely. The operations against the militants will continue and there would be zero tolerance to violence in Kashmir, is the new mantra of BJP government.
With Ajit Doval still NSA, there seems very little change while the new cabinet has already been sworn-in with Amit Shah as Union Home Minister. Although media reports from New Delhi have suggested that there would be some breaking of ice between India and Pakistan, but people of Kashmir are waiting to see if there would be any change on the ground.