NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR, 16 February 2006 — In a path-breaking effort to resolve lingering Kashmir problem Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited leading Kashmiri leaders for a detailed discussion on the issue, sources said yesterday.
“The prime minister is going to hold a roundtable conference with Kashmir leaders,” an official from Manmohan’s office said.
A list of around 50 people, including representatives of main Kashmiri political parties and separatist organizations, has been drawn up for invitations to the talks, the Hindustan Times said, quoting government sources.
No specific agenda had been set for the meeting on Feb. 24 in the Indian capital.
The talks would mark the first time Kashmiri political leaders, separatists and the Indian government would sit at the same table since the outbreak of an anti-Indian insurgency in Kashmir in 1989, the paper said.
“The PM wants to hear from all the part quoted a government source as saying. “He is keen to seek cooperation from all the invitees for a return to normalcy.” Manmohan is due to meet with pro-independence separatist leader Yasin Malik tomorrow and last month held talks with another separatist, Sajjad Lone.
Malik yesterday accepted the prime minister’s invitation. Addressing a press conference in Srinagar at the end of a meeting of his party’s advisory council and working committee. He said, “I shall call on the Indian prime minister. Let us see what he has to offer us.”
Malik said it would be wrong to describe the meetings between the prime minister and Kashmiri groups as a “dialogue process,” saying it would be a “betrayal” of those killed fighting New Delhi’s rule and their families.
“It would create more confusion as more than 60 or 70 roadmaps for resolution of the Kashmir issue would emerge,” he said.
“If India is confused about who from Kashmir should be invited to the negotiation table with Pakistan, the best solution lies in a referendum for leadership,” said Malik.
Malik is a former militant whose political organization has repeatedly called for a boycott of all India-organized elections in Kashmir. The series of talks follow Manmohan’s decision to meet all leaders and separatists from the Indian Kashmir.
Kashmiri separatists — whose demands range from independence to merger with Pakistan — have been demanding tripartite talks involving India, Pakistan and the “true representatives” of the Kashmiri people.
In September, Manmohan held his first direct talks with a moderate faction of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, the main umbrella body grouping the Kashmiri separatists.
The talks followed a visit by some of its members to Pakistan in June. A hard-line Hurriyat splinter group has rejected any dialogue with New Delhi. — Additional input from agencies.
