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| Quiet diplomacy takes off: Mirwaiz, others meets PC | | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Nov 16: Second round of a secret dialogue between Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led faction of the separatist Hurriyat Conference with the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has taken place in New Delhi on Saturday, days before the cleric-politician is scheduled to visit Pakistan. Highly placed sources, believed to be well informed of the new development, revealed to Early Times that Mirwaiz was accompanied by his Hurriyat confidante Bilal Gani Lone and former Chairman of the conglomerate, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat.
According to these sources, Mirwaiz, Lone and Bhat got together at Khan Market---also frequently visited by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his family---a little after mid-day and an official car without number plate drove them straight to the nearby Lodhi Estate where Home Minister Chidambaram held a secret meeting with the Kashmiri separatist leaders at a safe house. The meeting lasted for two hours, sources said but claimed to have no knowledge of what had transpired between the two sides.
As agreed in a contact between the two, Central and state security and intelligence agencies, who normally maintain watch on the Hurriyat leaders, were directed to clear out at 1100 hours. Accordingly, there was no visible security or intelligence cover, sources said.
Even as nobody from the Hurriyat responded to phone calls, sources close to Mirwaiz maintained that no such meeting had taken place between the Chairman and the Union Home Minister. “These are deliberate leaks being floated by officials in Omar Abdullah’s governments who do not seem to be sincere in their talk of restoration of the dialogue process with the Kashmiri leadership”, said a senior separatist leader wishing anonymity. He said that Mirwaiz Umar’s detractors in a rival Hurriyat camp had also shown a lot of enthusiasm in trumpeting about a meeting he had, according to a New Delhi report, held with Chidambaram before his departure for participation in the OIC meeting in New York last month.
Amid Chidambaram’s refrain of “quiet diplomacy”, former RAW chief A S Dullat and former Pakistani High Commissioner, Aziz Ahmed Khan, have reportedly held three rounds of talks in Bangkok. Khan was last month in Srinagar where he participated an Indo-Pakistan civil society conference and also held at least two meetings with Mirwaiz and Governor N N Vohra, separately. He was also joined in both meetings by a former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan.
After days of his hectic political activity in Doda and Kishtwar districts in Muslim-dominated parts of Jammu region, followed by a three-day visit to New Delhi, Mirwaiz today reached here back and joined the funeral of prominent journalist and editor of ‘Srinagar Times’ Sofi Ghulam Mohammad. He also led the Namaaz-e-Janaazah.
Sources close to Mirwaiz said that the Hurriyat Executive Council would meet here on Wednesday to discuss his forthcoming visit to Pakistan as also to constitute a team of senior separatist leaders who would be accompanying the Hurriyat chief.
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