BJP national secretary Ram Madhav (TOI photo)

NEW DELHI: Two days after the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu & Kashmir asked the Centre to initiate a unilateral "ceasefire" against terrorists starting from the month of Ramzan till the Amarnath yatra, BJP washed its hands of it.

Disapproving of the recommendation and objecting particularly to the word "ceasefire", BJP national secretary Ram Madhav , also the party's Kashmir minder, told TOI in an interview, "If by ceasefire the suggestion is to cease operations by forces against terrorists, that is not going to happen until terrorists stop terror activities. Since Ramzan is a holy month for Muslims, terrorists should announce a unilateral ceasefire. If they stop killing ordinary civilians and attacking forces, operations against them will automatically stop."

To begin with, Madhav said, BJP had not agreed to the suggestion of unilateral "ceasefire" which was made at the all-party meeting headed by CM Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar. "Moreover, there was no formal proposal or recommendation made to the Centre," he pointed out.

Mufti had claimed that both the ruling coalition and the opposition in J&K were unanimously in favour of suspending counter-insurgency operations against terrorists, starting from mid-May till ending August, for the sake of providing "relief to people" during the period of their religious obligations and festivals.

Madhav argued that the security forces will continue counter-terror operations till there is terror because "they are duty bound to save and secure interests of common people. We cannot let the security situation for ordinary people deteriorate."

The BJP, he said, was open to talks with all the stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir but as far as terrorism was concerned, the government was not going to compromise over it. “It's our duty to deal with it with an iron hand,” he said.

The recent relative peace along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, was a result of “India’s strong response” to Pakistan’s attacks. Incidentally, Pakistan’s Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, as per a UK based think-tank, Royal Unites Services Institute, has been lately making peace overtures to India.

However, Madhav said that despite Pakistan’s gestures of extending an olive branch, the evidence on the ground was not complimentary. “We are not averse to dialogue but the atmosphere is not conducive for it. Pakistan continues to fund terror activities and push terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir. Their words do not match their action,” he said.

