We need to know what alienated Kashmiri youth: Sonia

NEW DELHI - Congress president Sonia Gandhi Sunday said the country needed to find an answer to what caused alienation among youth in Kashmir Valley, where calm prevails at last after months of street violence in which over 100 people were killed.

“We have to find an answer in Jammu and Kashmir why an entire generation that has witnessed nothing but violence is feeling isolated. We should look at it,” Gandhi said in her address to the 83rd Congress plenary being held here.

Gandhi said the appointment of interlocutors for the troubled state battling an unending separatist campaign was a step toward this process. “We have appointed interlocutors and we want to do this,” she said.

The government appointed three interlocutors for finding political solutions to problems in Kashmir after months of unrest revived the separatist campaign.

Sonia Gandhi said “we should understand the reason behind violence”.

“There are unresolved political and economic issues” that are being exploited by external forces.

“Doors to dialogue should be kept open for political resolutions (of problems),” she said.

She added that “nobody should doubt our ability to fight the forces promoting crossborder terrorism to destabilise Indian economy”.

The Congress president said the recent Varanasi bomb blast was a grim reminder “that we should not be relaxing our security”.