All-party delegation meet public, face protests as visit ends

Srinagar : The all-party delegation on Tuesday wrapped up its two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, trying to reach out to all sections, including the separatist factions, even as curfew continued in major parts of Kashmir Valley.

The delegation will submit a report to the Central Cabinet, but divisions in the team were visibly with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distancing itself from the move to call on separatist leaders by some members of the all-party delegation.

Claiming that the decision to meet the separatists? leaders was not a collective one, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said, ?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.?

She added that it was not a mandate as the issue was not discussed in the delegation.

Swaraj, however, said the visit was successful.

?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,? she added.

However, the BJP?s comments on meeting the separatist leaders without the mandate was rejected by Communist leader Sitaram Yechury, who was among the delegates who had called on Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik.

?It was a collective decision. We are the ones who proposed. It was finally on behalf of the delegation,? he stressed.

Moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq met the delegates wearing a black band in protest of the killings in firing by the security forces.

Besides other points, the issue of protection of minorities, like Kshmiri Pandits and Sikhs, was also raised with Geelani by Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party), who called on the harline Hurriyat leader separately on Tuesday.

J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, stating that the meeting with the separatists was scheduled, said, ?We had only worked towards it to make it possible. I am happy that it worked and the delegation got views of every shade of opinion in the Valley.?

Dismissing charges that the state government ?stage-managed? the visit, he said, ?The delegation has come obviously to get a report about the ground situation here. We tried to ensure the delegation meets as many people as possible.?

Besides meeting the political and civil society organisations? leaders, a part of the delegation, led by Union Home minister P Chidambaram, on Tuesday visited Tangmarg, which had witnessed mob violence on September 13 over rumours of alleged desecration of the holy Koran in the US.

The local people, interacting with the team, demanded the revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, eradication of poverty, unemployment and complained about poor infrastructure.

A separate team of the all-party delegation also visited the SMHS hospital to meet the people injured in the ongoing unrest in Kashmir Valley.

They were met with protests by angry attendants and patients, but the team managed to have an interaction with the people.

In Jammu, migrant and refugee communities held a sit-in demonstration and observed as ‘black day’ the all-party delegation?s visit.

They maintained that no solution was possible without the involvement of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in talks.

About 60 protestors were arrested as they refused to disperse even when police baton-charged them.

Meanwhile, indefinite curfew remained in force in Srinagar and other major towns of Kashmir for the tenth day on Tuesday.

Police said the prohibitory orders were promulgated as a precautionary measure for the safety and security of the common people.

Curfew was clamped on September 12 after headquarters of Power Development Department (PDD) and Crime Branch (CB) were set on fire and the historic ghantaghar (tower clock) was attacked on Eid-ul-Fitr, when moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) leader Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Mohammad Yaseen Malik joined a sit-in-protest at Lal Chowk. Violence has claimed 105 lives so far.