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Jammu: Seeking people's cooperation in defeating "vested interests" that wanted to prevent restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said it was not people but politicians who had brought the state to "this messy situation".

"We, the politicians, have failed to deliver and give the right leadership to the people," Sayeed said while speaking at the third Brig Rajinder Singh Memorial lecture on June 15.

The Chief Minister cautioned the people against fighting among themselves and said, "Our objective is to defeat the common enemy and restore peace with dignity for which people of the state have voted fearlessly." Sayeed said after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's bold initiative to extend hand of friendship to Pakistan and send Centre's interlocutor N N Vohra to Kashmir, an atmosphere has been created to demolish the "walls of hatred".

He said recent developments like Vajpayee's visit to Kashmir and the Vohra mission are "in fact the defining moment for restoration of peace in the state which has suffered immensely due to militancy for the last 13 years".

Ridiculing those who take the Vohra mission lightly, he said, "Vohra is an emissary of the government of India with the mandate to negotiate (who was sent) not at the behest of any external power but because of our own choice to resolve the issues amicably."

He said the recent visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and 15 Chief Ministers to the Kashmir valley reflected the change in the mindset of the people regarding the situation in the state.

PTI