Make travel across LoC easy: Mufti

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Friday said travel across the Line of Control should be made easier.

"What is the harm if people of both the areas visit each other like in North and South Korea..." he said after inaugurating the police headquarters in Jammu.

He said, "Let the people of PoK [Pakistan-occupied Kashmir] come and see for themselves the ground situation in Jammu and Kashmir, and our people will also get a chance to see the conditions in that part of the state.

"Entry points like Wagah in Amritsar should be created in Jammu and Kashmir to facilitate movement of people with valid documents."

Urging militants to give up the gun, the chief minister said: "When the process of dialogue has begun between India and Pakistan to resolve all bilateral issues, including Kashmir, there is no justification for violence.

"We are getting killed every day; we are the sufferers."

Referring to slain Hizbul Mujahideen chief Abdul Majeed Dar's unilateral ceasefire in July 2000, he said, "All interested persons must create a conducive atmosphere?"

It is due to 'pressure from people of Jammu and Kashmir that the process for restoration of peace with dignity has begun', according to him.

"People have understood that nothing can be solved through the gun and they gave a decisive verdict against it in the last elections. A new climate has been created after the elections," he added.

The chief minister said that after the 'terror attacks of September 11 in the US, a new situation developed in the world and the realisation dawned that nothing can be achieved through violence. This is no way to fight for anything'.

"As far as we are concerned, we are living in a democracy where there is always a battle of ideas to convince people of different viewpoints. People in Kashmir are longing for peace and this made Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee extend his hand of friendship to Pakistan while addressing the enthusiastic crowd in Srinagar."