Kashmir delegation divided on meeting separatists
New Delhi/Sringar : Ahead of submitting reports to the Centre on Kashmir situation, the all-party delegation from Delhi got divided as BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said the decision to call on the separatist leaders was not taken collectively.
Her version comes a day after CPI-M Rajya Sabah member Sitaram Yechury and some other delegates met Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik in Kashmir.
“That was their personal decision, not a decision of the delegation. If some people want to go, we can not stop them. But we decided not to go,” Sushma said. She added that it was not a mandate as it was not discussed in the delegation.
Denying this, Yechury said ” it was a collective decision. We are the ones who proposed. It was finally, officially, on behalf of the delegation.”
Sushma, however, said the visit was successful in the sense that ” we have listened to the people and tried to understand what they were saying. Sitting from far you cannot understand the problem, you have to come here and listen to people’s point of views from different walks of civil society. We will respond to this in Delhi after interacting with each other.”
Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq met the delegates wearing a black band in protest of the killings in firing by the security forces.