Kashmir delegation: Separatists opt out, Mehbooba Mufti to send team

Srinagar : Jammu and Kashmir’s main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti will only send her team to meet the all-party delegation now touring Kashmir while moderate separatists led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Monday he has rejected the invitation to meet the visiting team.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yasin Malik, whose outfit wants independence from both India and Pakistan, has also rejected the invitation to attend the delegation.

The separatist groups will submit a joint memorandum to the all-party team.

On Sunday, Mehbooba Mufti said the Jammu and Kashmir government led by Omar Abdullah has started a process to sabotage the visit of an all-party delegation to Kashmir by imposing fresh curfew.

She decided not to meet the delegation herself in protest against the curfew and only send her party members.

Mirwaiz Omar Farooq told NDTV: “We have seen that only when a major crisis erupts, there are visible efforts to engage and understand our aspirations. As soon as immediate crisis subsides, political complacency gets restored.”

“We choose not to meet your delegation and will send a joint memorandum to all. We have reiterated our four points for a peace process to begin. We propose talks between parliamentary committees of India and Pakistan,” he told the channel.

Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has earlier called the visit an “eye-wash” and refused to meet the delegation.

However, the all party delegation wants to call on Geelani, despite the latter rejecting invitations for talks, political observers here said.

They said the delegation was keen to call on Geelani, a hardliner, and moderate Mirwaiz Umer Farooq to get their views on the crisis, besides meeting all section of people and elder citizens.

The all party delegation, headed by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and comprising representatives from the mainstream political parties, arrived here Monday to assess the situation in Kashmir where 105 people died in violence since June 11.

The delegation will meet the cross section of people and various political parties in Srinagar during its two-day visit before submitting its recommendation to the Centre for consideration by the cabine committee.

The decision to send a delegation, for the first time in two decades, was taken at an all-party meeting here last week, in which the Prime Minister stressed on feedback from the Kashmir people to chalk out strategy to tackle the unrest in the valley.

The 33-member delegation will also try to meet some separatist groups and take their views.

Of the separatist groups in Kashmir, one sections wants independence from both Pakistan and India while another wants Kashmir to accede to the Islamic state of Pakistan.