Tinkering with Article 35A will be like setting powder keg on fire: Mehbooba Mufti
Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti warned the Centre on Sunday against the revocation of Article 35A, saying any tinkering with the constitutional provision would be akin to setting a powder keg on fire.
Addressing a function here to celebrate the Peoples Democratic Party's 20th raising day, Mufti asked her party workers to get ready for a big fight for the protection of Article 35A, which gives special rights and privileges to the state's permanent residents.
"We want to tell the Central government that tinkering with Article 35A will be akin to setting a powder keg on fire," the PDP president said. "If any hand tries to touch Article 35A, not only that hand, but that whole body will be burnt to ashes."
Mufti said they would fight till death any attempt to tinker with the state's special status.
The former chief minister said many attempts would be made to harass the PDP and its leaders. She said New Delhi knew the PDP was the "only party" that "stands like a wall" to protect the state's special status and identity.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
