New Delhi, Mar 24: Political parties today said the massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in Pulwama district of south Kashmir was designed to derail the peace process and democracy in the state and BJP and National Conference asked the Mufti Sayeed government to halt its "soft" stand on militancy and plan to bring back migrants into the state. Condemning the attack as handiwork of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu said it was part of "the agenda of ethnic cleansing in Kashmir valley of its heterogeneous population."
He said the international community must understand that Pakistan has not given up terrorism and condemn it outrightly.
Pointing to recurring militant violence in the state, Naidu asked the PDP-Congress government to reassess the utility of continuing its "soft policy on terrorism" in national interest.
"While the situation in Kashmir requires healing, this healing touch must heal the victims of terror and not its perpetrators," Naidu said.
CPI and CPI(M) said the massacre of Pandits was designed to spoil chances of restoring peace in the valley and demanded an inquiry into the reported police inaction at the village.
"This inhuman act has been deliberately done to spoil the chances of restoring peace and allowing the minority community to live peacefully in the valley," a statement issued by the CPM polit bureau said.
Describing the killings as a "sinister design to give a communal twist and create further trouble", the CPI asked the Centre to extend all help to the state government to deal with the situation. Bureau Report