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HomeIndiaGovernanceJammu and Kashmir govt begins back-channel talks with Hurriyat

Jammu and Kashmir govt begins back-channel talks with Hurriyat

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The talks between the state government and Hurriyat come after the Joint Resistance leadership responded to the central government’s dialogue offer.

New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir government has begun back-channel talks with the Hurriyat, hoping to get the separatist alliance to come to the table for formal talks and help address the deteriorating situation in the troubled Kashmir Valley.

“Back-channel talks are on and Hurriyat is being encouraged to come to the table. The government and the (ruling) party is doing everything possible to use the opportunity the ceasefire has presented to make this a sustainable peace process,” a top state government source told ThePrint.

“All the stakeholders are being encouraged to come to the table for talks,” the source said. The secret meeting, the source said, took place between Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and a leader of the ruling PDP.

“It was an hour-long meeting in Srinagar. The two were sent by the senior leadership…to exchange views and share concerns,” the source said.

Hurriyat officials refused to confirm whether such a secret meeting took place.

News of the meeting comes on the eve of the visit of home minister Rajnath Singh to Srinagar. Singh has already sent feelers that the Centre is ready to hold talks with the Hurriyat leadership if the separatists came forward.

The ruling BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav has also said that the government is willing to hold talks with all sections in Kashmir including the Hurriyat, indicating that the ice between the two sides could break soon.

On its part, the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), an alliance of separatist groups, responded to the government call for talks last month by seeking clarity on the agenda of such a dialogue.

“The government is in the process of engaging the Hurriyat in the dialogue process. It is going on…right now we are examining the statement of the Hurriyat,” the Centre’s interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma told ThePrint.

On 29 May, in a change of stance, a statement issued by the JRL said that the separatist camp was ready for talks with the Centre but with riders to state a clear agenda for the dialogue, and include Pakistan and the people of the state as key stakeholders. It underlined that the offer of talks from the Centre made by Singh earlier was “unclear and ambiguous”.

Sharma said the demand of the separatists for recognising Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory is “never going to happen”. “Indian Parliament has passed unanimous resolutions. And there is Simla Agreement…if any precondition is set on those lines, they may not be conducive for talks,” he said.

“Once they come to the table, we can see their demands whether they are about releasing political prisoners or something else,” Sharma added.

The Ramzan ceasefire was announced by the central government as a goodwill gesture to the people of the state for the holy month. While 20 days of Ramzan have passed and the home ministry is positively considering an extension of the ceasefire, a series of grenade attacks on security forces has created a sense of worry about the peace initiative getting overshadowed.

“Even as we see the ceasefire bringing great relief to the people of J&K, militants seem to be continuing their violent activities & desperately trying to sabotage the process. I only hope that they realise the futility of their actions soon,” J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted Tuesday.

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1 COMMENT

  1. CM Mehbooba Mufti has her heart in the right place. There could be no one better positioned than her to have a sincere dialogue with all stakeholders in the Valley, starting with the Hurriyat, even as the central government finds ways to start talking to Pakistan. This is part of the coalition government’s Agenda for Alliance. 2. It is becoming clear that the old ways were leading into a cul de sac. For each militant killed, a young man is picking up the gun.

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