London, Mar 31: Despite the recent killing of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government will continue with its 'healing touch' policy, chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said. Describing the March 24 massacre as a "conspiracy" by enemies of the country to derail the 'healing touch' policy, mufti said: "The enemy does not want us to carry on with our work. This is a setback for us. But this does not mean that whatever our strategy and line of action is, we stop that. "We have to go ahead with the policy of healing touch that we have evolved, to improve the situation."

Replying to questions last night in a television channel, he dismissed the allegation that he was soft on militants for withdrawing Pota and disbanding of the Special Operations Group (SoG).

"Before our government came to power, Pota and SoG were very much there, then why did the incidents in wandhama, Chattisinghpura and Prankote take place? In fact ever since we came to power, such incidents have come down in the past five to six months," he said. Drawing a parallel with the ongoing war in Iraq, the chief minister said: "Look at Iraq, the people there are defying the American and British attacks with force. People cannot be won over by the use of bullet and force. The only answer is to talk."

Bureau Report