Indian PM Modi calls all-party meeting on Occupied Kashmir status
June 19, 2021 11:57 AM
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called an all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir next week, reported NDTV channel.
The TV channel quoting sources said the huddle was called amid reports that the Indian government may discuss restoration of statehood and other important issues concerning the territory.
This was PM Modi's first major outreach to end the political impasse over the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019.
"We have been intimated about a meeting next week. We are waiting for a formal invitation," a senior Jammu and Kashmir leader told NDTV.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and top security and intelligence officers.
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In August 2019, the Indian government cancelled Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and also bifurcated the state into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Top leaders in Jammu and Kashmir - including former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah - were arrested just before the BJP government announced the mega decisions in parliament. They were released months later.
NDTV had last week reported that the Modi government was likely to initiate the political process that has been virtually non-existent since 2019.
The BJP government is also expected to discuss assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, due since 2018, when the BJP snapped ties with its coalition partner and then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.