(Reopen DEL75)

Mehbooba said the people, who are vitiating theenvironment and creating unrest in the region, are notKashmiris. "The people of Jammu and Kashmir know what ‘azadi’is. These few people want to vitiate the environment of peacebecause the BJP-PDP government is doing good work and theyhave began to deliver," the Chief Minister said. Sending out a terse message to the stone-pelters, shesaid, "If you want to protest, then why small children aretaken to security camps and police stations and are pushedinto by inciting for attacks by petrol bombs. These peopleincite the mob and then run away and allow them to die." She added, "You (protesters) go to CRPF camps withchildren and you escape from there after inciting the mob ofthese children and raise their sentiments for entering intothe camp. You escape from there and the result is whether itis pellet gun firing or rifle firing, the children getkilled." Chief Minister said "the children, who should have beenwith their parents, in the lap of their mothers, have beenmade shield by defying curfews and restrictions for attackingcamps and police stations". Narrating the events leading to unrest, she said "weshifted from Jammu to Srinagar, held peaceful Assembly sessionand were faced with Handwara episode where we wanted to ensurepeace then the issues were racked up one or the other colony. "I mean to say that some people were waiting in wings toget some excuse (to disturb peace). Whenever the situation inJammu and Kashmir becomes normal, tourism gets back on trackand people get engaged into their jobs and trades, there issome or the other trouble instigated." Before the unrest, there was a huge footfall of touristsin Kashmir valley, Amarnath yatra started in a big way and thegovernment tried to provide better infrastructure, includingpower supply, ration, She said. "We introduced a policy for ensuring that everyindividual gets his or her share of food and we thought afterthe conclusion of the Assembly session we will start thiswork. The Assembly session concluded I got the results (ofvictory in Assembly elections) and then what has happened youall know," she said. She said, "Some people thought that this PDP-BJPgovernment will carry forward the agenda of previous MuftiMohammad Sayeed government in Jammu and Kashmir towardsdevelopment, peace, progress and prosperity by opening newroutes between two sides of LoC and strengthen the crossborder trade and travel." The Chief Minister said the attempts to disturb peacewere first made from Handwara to trigger unrest but the peopledid not respond. She was referring to the purported incidentof alleged molestation of a school girl by a soldier. "….they got an excuse (after Burhan’s encounter).Otherwise there have been hundreds of encounters till now andhundreds of security forces, militants and policemen andinnocent people have been killed," she said. While attacking "vested interests" for making childrentheir sheild during stone pelting, Mehbooba said she hadearlier fought to end the practice of security forces andpolice of making civilians a human shield during encountersand searches. "Earlier, security forces and police used to take peoplealong with themselves during search operations and the peoplewould fear that if there are militants inside, they can fireon them and they will get killed," she said. "I fought with security forces, STF and the governmentthat you cannot make those people shields, but today I feelsorry that we have removed the fear among the youth thatnobody can touch you whether army, police or security forcesif you are on the right path," she added. PTI AB NKSAKK