Hurriyat Conference leaders meeting

By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI , June 20 (IslamOnline) - In a major shift from its demand for tripartite talks to resolve Kashmir issue, the Hurriyat Conference Wednesday, June 19, said it was willing to consider simultaneous talks with India and Pakistan .

“It will be triangular talks instead of tripartite talks. The modalities for such a process can be worked out,” Hurriyat chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, flanked by six other Hurriyat leaders, said at a crowded press conference in Srinagar , Kashmir ’s summer capital.

“We can talk to India first and then go to Pakistan for a dialogue,” Bhat added.

He, however, said that the Kashmir issue cannot be resolved without the involvement of the principle party to the dispute - the Kashmiri people.

Giving details of the outcome of the day-long plenary session of Hurriyat’s Executive, General Council and Working Committee yesterday, Bhat said “all the members favored talks to resolve Kashmir issue peacefully.”

“But there [will] be no back door talks. We want to talk and talk transparently with the purpose of de-escalation, negotiation and resolution to Kashmir issue,” the Hurriyat chairman said.

On the parallel “Election Commission” formed by the Hurriyat last February to elect Kashmiri representatives who will talk to India and Pakistan for a final settlement, Bhat said, “I don’t know whether it was fortunate or unfortunate but Union Minister for Law Arun Jaitly rejected the proposal on the floor of Parliament.”

“We had completed two stages by announcing the formation of the commission and nominating its members and were going to announce the third subject to acceptance of the commission by the government of India but that did not happen,” he added.

Renewing the proposal to the Center, Bhat said “ India should pull back its armed and paramilitary forces to the barracks and facilitate Hurriyat leadership’s visit to Azad Kashmir (Pakistan-administered Kashmir ) to obtain a ceasefire from the Mujahideen leadership. Hopefully, they would listen to us.”

Bhat also said all political prisoners should be released to create a serious political atmosphere for initiation of peace process. Demanding that the ban on public meetings be lifted and restrictions on separatist leaders be removed, he asked the Centre to withdraw “all laws counter to civility” from the state and put an end to human rights violations.

While Hurriyat Conference formulated these views, there is speculation in Srinagar that New Delhi is planning to arrest more Hurriyat leaders. It has already jailed two top Hurriyat leaders, Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Shah Geelani beside many second rung leaders like Ghulam Muhammad Bhat.

New Delhi wants to move away from the scene all “hard-liners” who will be campaigning for a boycott of the “free and fair election” for the state legislative assembly next October. There is a talk of an emerging “Third Front’ with New Delhi ’s blessings.

On the other hand, India ’s Defense Minister George Fernandes ruled out any de-escalation of troops along the Indo-Pak border but he conceded that there is a “considerable decline in cross border terrorism as well as infiltration as we have no confidence in our neighbor Pakistan .”

The head of the Indian army, Gen. Sunderajan Padmanabhan, also said that there has been a dramatic drop in the number of cross-border incursions by Pakistan-based Islamic guerrillas into the Indian-controlled Kashmir . “Infiltration has gone down significantly,” Padmanabhan said. Since May 27, “we have had probably just one attempt which we have intercepted,” he added.

In other developments on the Indo-Pak border along Ganganagar in Rajasthan, an assistant commandant of the Border Security Force was killed in firing by Pakistani rangers, BSF sources said today.

The incident occurred last evening in Raisinghnagar area when BSF officials intercepted an intruder trying to sneak into the Indian territory . While the officials were questioning the intruder, Pakistani rangers opened indiscriminate fire killing Commandant Sumer Singh.

In another serious development toady a ruling National Conference regional president Abdul Rashid Chaloo was killed by gunmen at Khanyar in Srinagar . Official sources said militants sprayed bullets on Chaloo from a very close range. He died before being shifted to a hospital, they added. Chaloo was considered very close to Kashmir Works Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar.

In a separate incident three Hizbul Mujahideen militants were shot dead by security forces in the Gool area in the Ramban Police district last night, police said. Five militants were killed in two separate encounters in Baramulla and Udhampur districts in Jammu and Kashmir since last evening, according to a defense spokesman of Northern Command today.

Hurriyat Conference president, Prof AG Bhat

Meanwhile, as part of its diplomatic offensive against India , Pakistan plans to table four resolutions on the Kashmir issue at next week's Foreign Ministers Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) at Khartoum .

The four resolutions on Kashmir to be tabled by Pakistan at the three ay OIC Foreign Ministers meet include, the stand-off between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, de-escalation of political and military tensions between the two countries, extension of economic assistance to Kashmiris and destruction of Charar-i-Sharif complex and other Islamic sites in Kashmir, Pakistan daily newspaper, Dawn, said today.

Resolutions on the destruction of Babri Masjid and protection of Islamic holy places in India would also come up for discussion at the 57-member OIC Ministerial conference, it said. The Pakistani newspaper said these resolutions have already been okayed at the senior officials' meeting held in Jeddah earlier this month and have been recommended for formal adoption at the meeting in Khartoum.

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