Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has appealed to militants in Jammu and Kashmir to lay down their arms and participate in the upcoming elections to the state assembly. Vajpayee, who is on a working visit to Washington, in an interview to ‘Washington Post’, published on Saturday, said the militants should give up arms and take part in the elections, due next year. He also said the situation in the state has gone from bad to worse since Pervez Musharraf came to power in Pakistan two years ago in a military coup. Bureau Report