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Kashmir : Centre ready for talks with the Hurriyat |
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The Centre is reported to have expressed its readiness to resume talks with the Hurriyat Conference, but the separatist organisation does not appear to be too keen on the dialogue. Reports say that the Prime Minister is understood to have given his consent to meet moderate Hurriyat leaders early next month. The meeting will take place any time between the end of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on August 26 and before Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to New York in the middle of September to attend the UN General Assembly session.
The proposed meeting, if it takes place, will be the first between the Prime Minister and the Hurriyat since the installation of the UPA Government at the Centre. Earlier, during the NDA rule, the moderate Hurriyat leaders had held two meetings with then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.
But there are misgivings in the Government over the sincerity of the separatist leaders. Sections within the Government are sore over the “grave disrespect” shown by these leaders to the Prime Minister’s offer to meet them in April this year, around the time Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was to visit India in connection with the India-Pakistan one-day cricket match in Delhi.
Sources recalled that even after Dr. Singh had short-listed three possible dates in early April, the Hurriyat leadership reneged on its promise to meet him. The separatist leaders followed it up by extending their PoK visit to include Islamabad.
“The design was clearly to prioritise talks with Pakistani leaders and follow it up with the Indian leadership, even as the separatists have been meeting the former freely at Delhi’s Pakistan High Commission over the past several years,” said a source.
The Prime Minister’s call for dialogue in his Independence Day speech has drawn a cold response from the Hurriyat leadership. Moderate leaders argue that the invitation for dialogue holds nothing for them, the hardliners say the statement only vindicates their stand that the Centre is not serious on resolving the issue.
Former chairman of the moderate Hurriyat faction, Maulvi Abbas Ansari said the Centre has nothing to offer. “Why should we go to Delhi and waste our time ? We are not against talks, but the Government of India should fix a date for it and then invite us properly,” he said.
The Hurriyat and the Government have been struggling to resume talks after a delegation of the conglomerate returned from their trip to Pakistan.
Jammu, Ladakh should be involved in the dialogue : Mufti
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed has sought the involvement of representatives of all three regions of the state in the restoration of peace with dignity. In his Independence Day speech, the Mufti said both India and Pakistan have realised the ground situation and expressed the hope that the people of the state would become the bridge of peace between the two neighbouring countries. The Chief Minister said that Dr. Manmohan Singh had made it clear that the Centre was open to unconditional talks on Jammu and Kashmir. This, the Mufti said, should include different shades of opinion in the state apart from the separatist groups.
The Chief Minister lashed out at the separatists and their sympathisers saying that they had double standards on human rights abuses. “They raise a hue and cry against rights violation by any security personnel, but maintain silence when women, children and political workers are killed by militants,” he said, adding that the separatists did not even condemn attacks on school children
Mufti, however, added that any rights violation by security forces would not be tolerated.
The Chief Minister further spelt out his views on the Kashmir issue at a meet-the-press, organised in Chandigarh on August 16. “The ongoing peace process is irreversible. We (the two countries) have exhausted all options and the only option left now is peace. But, there is no ready made solution. All parties must be part of the dialogue process. The Central Government must talk to them, including the All Party Hurriyat Conference”, he told media persons at a meet-the-press organised by the Chandigarh Press Club.
Talking about his desire to step down from the post of Chief Minister in November at the completion of his three-year term, he said that he had already conveyed his decision to the Congress high command. “I am committed to the agreement between the parties. It is for the Congress to choose its candidate for Chief Ministership,” he added in response to a question.
Explosion near Srinagar stadium on Independence Day
Despite tight security arrangements in the Kashmir Valley, militants set off an explosive device outside the Bakhshi Stadium in Srinagar on Independence Day. The explosive device went off just an hour before the Chief Minister was scheduled to arrive at the Bakhshi Stadium for the Independence Day parade. The celebration, however, went off peacefully despite the explosion.
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