Jaitley, Azad, Yechury, Owaisi in all-party delegation to oversee Kashmir situation

New Delhi: Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Jitendra Singh will be part of an all-party delegation led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh which will also comprise Leader of Opposition Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and his Lok Sabha colleague Mallikarjun Kharge.

The delegation, visiting the Valley due to protests in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani, will have 28 parliamentarians which include Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP) and Congress leader Ambika Soni.

The visit will take place on September 4 and 5.

The delegation will also comprise JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, NCP's Tariq Anwar and Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy.

The decision to send the all-party delegation was taken during an all-party meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

The Kashmir Valley has seen possibly the longest spell of protests for 54 days in which 69 people have lost their lives so far.

Other members of the delegation include Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut and Anandrao Adsul, TDP's Thota Narasimham, Shiromani Akali Dal's Prem Singh Chandumajra, BJD's Dilip Tirkey, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, AIUDF's Badaruddin Ajmal, Muslim League's E Ahamed and TRS Jitendra Reddy.

N K Premchandran (RSP), P Venugopal (AIADMK), Tiruchi Siva (DMK), Y B Subba (YSR-Cong), Jaiprakash Yadav (RJD), Dharamveer Gandhi (AAP) and Dushyant Chautala (RLD) are also in the team.

BSP and Samajwadi Party have extended their support but have not been able to nominate any of their members.