NEW DELHI, Jan 31: Lambasting Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for ``having failed to contain militancy'' in the troubled state, Congressman and former home minister Mufti Mohammed Syed urged the Central Government to initiate a dialogue with all sections of people there.``People are being killed in Kashmir and the Chief Minister is busy playing winter sports,'' fumed the Mufti while addressing a press conference here today.He has charged Farooq with having failed to initiate a political process to bring back normalcy in the state even though his party, the National Conference, bagged over two-third seats in the last Assembly elections. The Mufti's daughter, Mehbooba, who is the Congress MLA in the state Assembly, repeated the accusation.The former home minister insisted that although the security forces in the valley may have achieved success in tackling terrorists' strikes, the problem could only be solved politically.Both the Mufti and his daughter were noncommittal on whetherthe Congress would make this an issue in the coming elections. ``This should be one of the issues,'' Mehbooba said. But the Mufti is cut up with the Congress and other parties for not including the Kashmir problem on their political agenda. ``It seems that all political parties have left Kashmir to Farooq and the security forces,'' he lamented.Although he has criticised Abdullah, the Mufti is not prepared to demand the resignation of the National Conference Government. ``I am not saying Farooq should step down. I am only saying the situation in Kashmir is bad and a dialogue with the people has to begin,'' he said.``If we can hold talks with Naga and Mizo insurgents as also Assam militants,'' he argued, ``why can't we do the same in Jammu and Kashmir? It has been the Indian tradition to hold talks with people having diametrically opposite views. If we can hold talks with Pakistan, there is no harm in offering unconditional talks to our own misguided group of people.''Ashes "seized"The Jammu and Kashmir Awami League, a political outfit of surrendered militants, today claimed that they had brought the urn containing ashes of 23 massacred Kashmiri Pandits from the valley and that it was "seized" by police from its office in Jammu. League vice presidents Vidhi Sharma and S K Tickoo said a police team, headed by city superintendent of police, entered the party office at Panjtirthi and took away the urn. They said the ashes were brought from Wadhama village yesterday by the relatives and Awami League party workers for "public homage". The ashes were to be immersed in the river Ganga at Hardwar in UP, they said.
