SRINAGAR, 18 April — Despite a five-hour long meeting of its executive here yesterday, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) failed to arrive at a consensus on whether or not to accept the central government’s offer for a dialogue on restoring peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have decided to convene a meeting of the APHC working committee on Saturday and the general council on Monday so that a proper response to the Indian offer is framed,” APHC Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat told reporters after the meeting of the executive.
He also confirmed that a formal invitation for the talks had been received from K.C. Pant, the center’s interlocutor for the talks. “We got the letter only this afternoon,” he said and added “we discussed the issue but the meeting remained inconclusive,” Bhat said.
“It may take more than a week to come up with a final response,” he said.
Pant began the process on Sunday when he held talks with former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mir Qasim.
This is the first time since the APHC came into being in 1993 that the working committee or the general council is being consulted on any issue. Political analysts say this indicates sharp differences within the conglomerate over engaging in parleys with the government. It is also indicative of the strong polarization within the APHC between the moderates and the hard-liners.
Other analysts say the decision is “an exercise to broad-base responsibility within the (conglomerate) before a final acceptance or rejection of the dialogue offer.”
Three of the APHC’s seven-member executive were absent from the meeting. Significantly, the pro-Pakistan Jamat-e-Islami, which was not invited for the previous executive meeting, was yesterday represented by Qazi Ahadullah, a confidant of senior Jamat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Bhat said there were “no differences within the APHC regarding Geelani, who is an integral constituent of the APHC.”
The Hurriyat argues that any dialogue on Kashmir’s future must include Pakistan.
It has also said it will engage in a dialogue only if New Delhi issues travel documents allowing its leaders to visit Pakistan for talks with activist groups and officials there.
Separatist outfits have rejected Pant’s talks offer and warned that any parties entering into a dialogue with New Delhi would be branded traitors and dealt with severely.
Meanwhile, security forces in Kashmir yesterday presented a group of 11 activists they said had surrendered with their arms and ammunition.
Most of them belonged to Kashmir’s dominant group, the Hizbul Mujahedeen, a defense spokesman said.
In another development, one civilian was killed and three others injured in a bomb blast on a children’s playing ground yesterday on the outskirts of Srinagar, police said.
Police believe the accident was probably triggered accidentally, but the details of the incident are still being investigated.
