While senior separatist leaders have maintained a discreet silence over the dialogue offer by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the Democratic Freedom Party, led by jailed Hurriyat Conference leader Shabir Shah, said the seriousness of the offer would be determined only if the government orders the forces to go back to the barracks, engages all parties of the dispute in talks and releases all political prisoners.
The party said it would help in creating a conducive atmosphere for dialogue as it was the only effective way to resolve issues. “However, it (dialogue) must be held only to find a solution rather than add to the problem,” Moulana Mohammad Abdullah Tari, Democratic Freedom Party general secretary, said in a statement.
Tari further said that Delhi must not use the term ‘talks’ only before the media but should use dialogue as an institution to resolve the long-pending Kashmir dispute.
Though the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik has maintained a discreet silence over the latest dialogue offer by Rajnath Singh wherein he said that India was ready to talk to the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz, while batting for the India-Pakistan dialogue on Friday, had suggested a meeting of leaders from the five regions of erstwhile J&K, including Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh, Pakistan-administered Kashmir and this part of Jammu and Kashmir.
He had said the Hurriyat leadership was ready to extend full support to every serious effort aimed at the K-resolution.
Despite repeated attempts to reach him over the phone, Mirwaiz remained unavailable for comment. Senior Hurriyat leader Prof Abdul Gani Bhat said it would not be proper for him to speak on the issue even in individual capacity. “I cannot comment on it even in a casual manner. It needs to be discussed. Let the Hurriyat leadership first meet to discuss the issue. At this juncture, it won’t be proper for me to comment in my individual capacity,” Bhat said when asked if the Hurriyat leadership should accept the dialogue offer. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik refused to comment.
Resistance Camp maintain discreet silence over Rajnath’s talks offer
