Mehbooba Mufti slams Centre on Kashmir interlocutors

Kashmir valley’s main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti has slammed the Centre on its choice of interlocutors for the protest-hit state and dubbed it a futile exercise that would “bring things back to square one”.

“The visit of the political delegation had some kind of a calming impact on the ground situation, but now with this nomination it seems things are back to square one,” she told a news channel on Friday.

The Central government on Wednesday named veteran journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, Information Commissioner MM Ansari and academician Radha Kumar as interlocutors to hold talks with all sides in Jammu and Kashmir.

The government may add one more interlocutor later, Union Home minister P Chidambaram said, announcing the panel.

But Mufti is not impressed.

“I think Kashmir is a huge political problem and the way the country’s polity had responded for the first time it seemed the parties were serious and wanted to do something which we had not done earlier,” she said, adding that the effort was being wasted with the naming of these interlocutors.

Earlier, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram announcing the interlocutors said: ?We hope that they will begin a process of sustained uninterrupted dialogue with all sections of people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially with youths and students and all shades of political opinion.?

The interlocutors were appointed as per a decision taken at the Cabinet Committee on Security meeting chaired by Prime Manmohan Singh on September 25.

The panel will cover views of all the three regions – Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir.

Radha Kumar, who heads the Nelson Mandela Institute of Peace in Jamia Milia Islamia, has been engaged in back-channel discussions with moderate Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Padgaonkar was part of Kashmir committee led by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani.

Ansari, who was professor and Director at the Hamdard University, is an educationist and economist before moving as an Information Commissioner.

Kashmir is roiled by a massive anti-India youth protest led by the separatists since mid-June, leaving around 110 people dead mainly from street rioting and firing by the forces.