On Day 3, interlocutor meets political leaders in Kashmir; to go to Jammu today
Hoping for return of peace to Kashmir soon, the Centre’s interlocutor on Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, today said he would do his best to talk to the Hurriyat leaders in Kashmir.
Speaking to the media first time since his arrival here on Monday, he said, “My meetings went well. I met a lot of people.” Sharma, who was last month appointed as New Delhi’s representative for dialogue with all stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir, will conclude his Kashmir visit tomorrow and go to the Jammu region, where he will stay for two days.
Saying he hoped that peace would return to Kashmir very soon, Sharma added that he wished for a early political solution also.
“I will try my best,” Sharma told media persons when asked if he would go an extra mile to meet the Hurriyat Conference leaders. The separatist leaders, however, have rejected the dialogue offer.
Sharma spoke to the media after meeting with various political leaders, including National Conference working president Omar Abdullah and PCC chief GA Mir.
He also met CPM’s MY Tarigami, PDF’s Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen and DPN president Ghulam Hassan Mir. Sharma began the third day of his tour with a meeting with Omar at the latter’s Gupkar residence where he was advised to widen the ambit of dialogue and move out to meet people beyond the confines of the fortified Hari Niwas Palace.
A four-member Congress delegation, led by Mir, during the meeting with Sharma said there was a “need to talk to everybody” for resolution of the issues. The lone Independent MLA Engineer Abdul Rashid during his meeting with Sharma appealed to New Delhi to do away with “unrealistic attitude.” He said the “only respectable, dignified and universally accepted way” to resolve Kashmir was to “give people of Jammu and Kashmir right to self-determination on both the sides of the Line of Control.”
