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Kashmir : High level political talks begin this week

	January 17, 2005

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will start holding the political level dialogue with various shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir this week amid indications that separatists may also be invited for talks.



The Centre has started sending out invitations to various groups for talks at the political level with Patil who will pick up the threads from where the government’s special representative, N N Vohra left, official sources said in New Delhi.



The decision was taken at a high-level meeting convened by Patil early this month and is understood to have been given a nod by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“The invitation for talks is being extended to political parties in government in J and K, those in the Opposition and other political groups not represented in the legislature,” they said.

Other shades of opinion, including community groups like those representing Kashmiri Pandits, Gujjars, Dogras, Sikhs and Paharis will also be called for talks, sources said.



Patil will also hold talks, for the first time, with the people displaced by the Indo-Pak wars of 1947, 1965, 1971 and Kargil in 1999, besides academics, intellectuals, students and NGOs.



The Centre is likely to extend invitations to separatist groups, including Tehreek-e-Hurriyat led by hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, sources said, while underlining that the Centre “remains committed to meaningful dialogue” with them.



With regard to the moderate faction of the Hurriyat conference, which has already held two rounds of talks with the Union Government, sources said the ball is in their court and it is for them to decide whether or not to continue the process.



The moderate Hurriyat, headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, held two rounds of talks with then Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, and had agreed to continue the process.



However, after the UPA government assumed power in May last year, the dialogue process failed to resume. The Hurriyat has refused to meet Patil, arguing that holding talks with the Home Minister after the Deputy Prime Minister will “lower” the level of dialogue.



The Government believes that the Hurriyat has been seeking time as the conglomerate of several separatist outfits is faced with problems, like disunity.



Earlier, Vohra held extensive discussions with all the mainstream political parties and social groups when he visited all the three regions of the State - Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.



“The significant issues, which emerged during those discussions, will be taken up in the proposed second round of dialogue which will be at the political level now,” sources said.



The Coordination Group of the government headed by Vohra met in New Delhi earlier this month and discussed threadbare all issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir, including the prevailing situation there.

The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference says that its executive committee will be meeting to debate the need for its participation in the inter-action with the Centre. A senior leader of the Hurriyat, Abdul Ghani Bhat, said they have not received any formal invitation. Another leader of the faction, Maulvi Abbas Ansari said : “We will discuss whether to accept the offer for talks with the Centre or not only when we receive a written invitation. We are not ready to run to Shivraj Patil or N.N. Vohra for audience.”



Geelani denied permission to visit Pakistan

The Centre is reported to have denied permission to hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to attend a conference in Islamabad. Sources in New Delhi say that Geelani had applied for travel documents in Srinagar, but his request was turned down.

“His visit to Pakistan has been stopped on security grounds,” the sources added. The pro-Pakistan separatist leader, whose passport had been seized in 1981, was invited to attend the two-day conference on the contentious Kashmir issue.

Reacting to the Centre’s decision, Geelani said : “I was expecting this. This is nothing new.”



Militants step up attacks

Even as the Centre is initiating peace talks with all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorist outfits have stepped up their violent activities in the state.

Piercing tight security arrangements ahead of the Republic Day, militants stormed a regional passport office inside an indoor stadium in Srinagar on Saturday, Jan. 15. This triggered a gun-battle with the security forces which left two CRPF jawans killed. Two heavily armed militants of the Al Mansurian outfit, hurling a grenade and firing indiscriminately barged into the stadium in the afternoon. CRPF personnel returned the fire and cordoned off the entire area. The indoor stadium is adjacent to the Bakshi Stadium, the main venue of the Republic Day function in Srinagar.

Last week, two militants of the same outfit had stormed the Income Tax Department building at Barbarshah killing five security men before both of them were shot dead. In another incident, an Army Major, two jawans and two militants were killed in a 23-hour long encounter in the Chadoora area of Badgam district on Tuesday, January 11. The militants also appeared to be attempting to disrupt the coming civic elections in the state. They have been targeting candidates fighting the election.

There are reports that a banned militant outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed is trying to regroup in the state. A recently captured Kashmiri militant told security agencies that India headquarters of the outfit is located in concrete bunkers deep in the mountains of the Tral-Dachigam-Dara Hills of the state. The militant’s claims are still being verified. The captured militant, Sajjad Ahmed Butt, said that the bunkers are equipped with heavy arms including anti-aircraft guns. He said that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar spent weeks last year in the districts of Poonch and Rajouri to indoctrinate the local youth. Masood Azhar had gone into hiding in Pakistan soon after being exchanged for the passengers of IC-814, the Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandhar in Afghanistan, in December 1999. The militant revealed that a former Bihar MP allegedly facilitated the travel of Masood Azhar’s brother, Ibrahim, from Delhi to Kashmir.

Police and Intelligence officials who interrogated Sajjad Ahmed Butt believe that he is either lying or his seniors in the Jaish-e-Mohammed have taken him for a ride by introducing him to someone they wanted him to believe was Masood Azhar. Sajjad is being taken to Poonch and Rajouri to identify the places.