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| Dialogue wind blows | | Mirwaiz for unconditional engagement | | ZAFAR CHOUDHARY | 10/7/2009 12:34:30 AM |
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Jammu/Srinagar, Oct 6: Days after reports suggested New Delhi’s willingness to walk an extra mile on Jammu and Kashmir by devolving more powers, even through constitutional amendments, the chief moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq today expressed his readiness to engage into an unconditional dialogue with New Delhi.
Reports had recently suggested that the Government of India was working on a massive autonomy plan on Jammu and Kashmir and model under discussion revolved around four-point formula of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf which was later adopted with amendments by the Peoples Democratic Party as a win-win solution for all parties engaged. While there have been reports of intensive back channel parleys between New Delhi and Kashmiri separatists, as also some mainstream leaders, the Home Minister P Chidambram is reportedly supervising the process.
“Parleys have been on for sometime but initiation of dialogue could not be announced as New Delhi wanted to come up with something concrete for the breaking the impasse”, said a source privy to the development. The source added, “without a concrete proposal the dialogue could have suffered discredit and left no face saver for the separatists”.
While Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is believed to be actively facilitating the back channel dialogue, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is also in constant touch with the peace mandarins in New Delhi. “Mufti’s meeting with the Prime Minister last month and Mehbooba’s today’s meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh is a part of the ongoing exercise of consultations”, the source further informed.
Already briefed about broad contours of the possible dialogue process, the moderate separatist leader and chairman of his own faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today said that his conglomerate was ready for unconditional talks with both India and Pakistan to solve the lingering Kashmir problem.
"We are ready for talks with both India and Pakistan to resolve the long-pending Kashmir issue," Mirwaiz said in Srinagar today after a meeting of the Executive Council of the separatist amalgam.
The Hurriyat dove, who recently attended the OIC meeting in New York and held talks with representatives of Pakistan and other countries, favoured involvement of Kashmiris in the talks for resolution of the problem.
"There is need to show flexibility. Both New Delhi and Islamabad should involve Kashmiris as a basic party in the dialogue process," Mirwaiz said. The separatist leader, however, added the Hurriyat was ready for unconditional talks with both India and Pakistan.
Mirwaiz said the group will soon send a team to New Delhi and Islamabad to defuse tensions between the two countries so that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is resolved through dialogue. 'We would be sending a peace mission to Delhi and Islamabad so that tensions between the two countries are eased and the dialogue process is restarted in order to resolve the Kashmir problem,' he said. He, however, did not specify when the Hurriyat would send the team.
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