20/09/2010
Amid curfew and agony, Indian leaders meet Kashmir separatists
Srinagar: Indian political leaders held ice-breaking talks on Monday with Kashmiri separatist leaders in the glare of television cameras after three months of unprecedented street violence left 102 people dead in the valley and New Delhi grappling for ways to restore peace.
After Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) refused to meet the all-party delegation that flew in from New Delhi, the visiting politicians broke into small groups and met the three prominent faces of the two decades old separatist movement.
All three -- the hardliner Geelani and the moderates Farooq and Malik -- reiterated their known positions, insisting that the people of Kashmir desired freedom from India. They also denounced the security crackdown on street protests since June 11 that has left the valley in agony.
Geelani - who favours Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan - told Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury and four others at his residence that India would have to fulfil five conditions to restore calm in the valley.
"We will perish but won't give up. We have decided we will not surrender in the face of blind Indian imperialism," he said, sounding as militant as ever. "Talks won't be meaningful unless India accepts Kashmir as an international dispute," said the octogenarian, a former teacher who has always been a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
A similar group that included Gurudas Dasgupta of the Communist Party of India (CPI) heard out the Mirwaiz speaking in near similar language but in a moderate tone. The Mirwaiz said he favoured a result-oriented and unconditional dialogue between New Delhi and separatist leaders in the Kashmir Valley, where an armed struggle since 1989 has left thousands dead.
"This is not a mere political dispute... India should look at it as a humanitarian issue. Sentiments in the valley are for freedom, and India ought to respect that," the Mirwaiz said. Dasgupta politely told him that his party would favour anything "less than azadi (freedom)".
But Dasgupta made it clear that the delegation was not visiting Kashmir to whitewash the killings of civilians that has generated anger in Srinagar and all across the valley. "We are not here to defend any indignity, not to defend any barbarism, not to support any wrong being done (to Kashmiris). We represent different political voices. We have never believed you are Pakistani agents. You are equally Indians," he said.
JKLF's Malik, whose group favours an independent Kashmir, told another delegation that killings of civilians in the valley must cease immediately if normalcy needed to be restored. He alleged that New Delhi had neither a clear commitment nor a desire to effectively resolve the Kashmir issue as per the aspirations the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The 39-member team earlier landed in Srinagar in a special plane amid tight security and drove through deserted curfew-bound streets of the city for a first hand assessment of the situation. Police and paramilitary forces were deployed in large numbers on Srinagar's roads.
The city presented a ghostly look as the Indian leaders proceeded in bullet-proof vehicles to the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex (SKICC) at the edge of the Dal Lake to meet politicians from mainstream parties and prominent citizens.
Besides Home Minister P Chidambaram, the delegation included Parliamentary Affairs Minister PK Bansal (Congress) as well as Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Chidambaram said the team, which will visit Jammu on Tuesday, had arrived here with an "open mind".
He said the main purpose of the team was to interact with people, listen to them and "carve out a path for taking Kashmir out of this present cycle of violence". People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said that the party had decided to send a delegation led by its senior leader Muhammad Dilawar Mir to interact with the team. "The visit has been hijacked by the ruling party," she said, referring to the ruling National Conference
Stop being in denial, Mirwaiz tells India
Srinagar: Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Monday that Kashmir was an international dispute and that the time had come for India to stop being in denial. "Sitting in Kashmir, we come to the conclusion that the people of India are so ill-informed about Kashmir... Kashmir is an internationally accepted dispute. It is time to call a spade a spade," the Mirwaiz told a group of Indian political leaders who called on him at his residence.
The Mirwaiz suggested the formation of a Kashmir Committee in the Indian and Pakistani parliaments that would exclusively discuss nothing but the age old Kashmir dispute. "Let a beginning be made," he said, addressing mainly Communist leader Gurudas Dasgupta. "Kashmir is an international dispute and it has to be addressed according to the wishes of the people," he said.
He added that the issue of "azadi" (independence) should be addressed by the people and political actors in India. "We don't want to live in a constant state of fear and state terrorism," he said passionately while displaying photographs of young boys killed by security forces in firing since June 11.
"You cannot force the will (of India) on the (Kashmiri) people. You are seeing the reaction to force," he said, referring to the unending protests in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir Valley. He denied accusations that the Hurriyat members were Pakistani agents. He also emphasized that Kashmiris were not looking for economic sops from New Delhi.
"We are not beggars... We want justice... We don't want jobs," he said. "The voices of dissent in Kashmir are not being recognised by New Delhi. New Delhi is in a constant state of denial." Dasgupta said while he did not agree with the Hurriyat demand for "azadi", he would raise the issues raised by the Mirwaiz in parliament.
"We are not here to defend any indignity, not to defend any barbarism, not to support any wrong being done (to Kashmiris)," he said. "We represent different political voices. We have never believed you are Pakistani agents. You are equally Indians."
Five-member team meets Geelani
Srinagar: A group of five leaders including Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, who are part of the all party delegation, on Monday met hard-line Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at his residence in Srinagar.
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi and three others accompanied Mr. Yechury when they met Mr. Geelani at his residence. Mr. Geelani had refused to meet the all-party delegation that is currently in Srinagar.
Two similar groups of four members each are likely to meet moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF leader Yasin Malik.
TR Baalu (DMK), Ratan Singh Ajnala (Akali Dal) and Namo Nageshwara Rao (TDP) were the other members of the team that met Mr. Geelani.
All-party team in Kashmir, gets cold shoulder from separatists
Srinagar: Curfew and a separatist boycott - that was the scene that met the all-party delegation headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram which arrived here on Monday to take stock of the situation in the volatile Kashmir Valley before deciding how to defuse tensions.
The 39-member team landed at the Srinagar airport in a special plane amid tight security and drove through deserted streets to the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex (SKICC) on the edge of the Dal Lake to meet political leaders from mainstream parties and prominent citizens from the valley.
Though Chidambaram said the team, which visits Jammu on Tuesday, had arrived here with an "open mind", separatist leaders in the valley where 102 people have died in as many days gave it the cold shoulder. While Syed Ali Geelani, chief of the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference, had earlier refused to meet the visitors, moderate leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik Monday said they too would not meet the delegation, saying it was "a façade".
Besides Chidambaram, the delegation also comprises Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal, who represents the Congress, as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party's Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta, National Conference's Farooq Abdullah as well as Ramvilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).
Chidambaram addressed the gathering and said the team had come with an "open mind" and the main purpose was to interact with people, listen to them patiently, and "carve out a path for taking Kashmir out of this present cycle of violence". However, the efforts cut little ice with the separatist leaders.
The Mirwaiz, who heads moderate wing of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, said the visit was "a facade and a joke", while Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Malik said it has no utility. Instead, the JKLF sent a memorandum listing two separate Kashmir committees in India and Pakistan as amongst the conditions for engaging in a dialogue process.
The signed memorandum to the delegation started by stating: "In unequivocal condemnation of the killings of our children and youth, we choose not to meet with your delegation." The memorandum then listed out the conditions for a dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir dispute. These included forming two separate Kashmir Committees in India and Pakistan.
The statement stressed the "need to create a process in which all views and options - most of all Kashmiri aspirations" are considered before arriving at an acceptable solution. They suggested setting up an all-party "Kashmir Committee" for this purpose.
"Let the government of India facilitate to establish and empower an official body, a Kashmir Committee, consisting of senior representatives of all major Indian political parties to develop and enter into a process of engagement with the representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," it said.
"We believe that a similar Kashmir Committee, bringing together all political forces, should also be established in Pakistan. We will advocate to the political parties in Pakistan that this be done. This will ensure that all major political forces in India and Pakistan are on board with the peace process..."
People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said the party had decided to send its delegation led by senior leader Muhammad Dilawar Mir to interact with the team.
"The visit has been hijacked by the ruling party," she said, referring to the ruling National Conference. The valley has been rocked by a cycle of violence with retaliatory firing by the security forces on stone-pelting mobs resulting in the death of 102 civilians, mostly teenagers and youth, in 102 days since June 11.
Source: Agencies
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