JAMMU, Kashmir: Talks between an all-party delegation from Delhi and an agitating group from Jammu here yesterday failed to break the deadlock as protesters insisted on their “basic demand” of land being allotted to the Amarnath shrine board.
The talks between the delegation led by Home Minister Shivraj Patil lasted 90 minutes after the Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti (AYSS), a conglomerate of organizations demanding land return, agreed to participate in the meeting.
However, following the Samiti’s conditions, four delegation members from Jammu and Kashmir — Ghulam Nabi Azad, Saif-ud-Din Soz, Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah — did not attend the meet. At the end of the meet, Samiti leaders declared the talks yielded no results. “Our basic demand was for the return of the land and that has not been accepted,” a Samiti leader said.
Meanwhile, despite strict restrictions and soldiers dotting almost every yard here, protesters in the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir came out on the streets yesterday. At some places, protesters managed to defy the curfew raising anti-government slogans to press for the forest land in the Kashmir Valley, which was first allotted to and then reclaimed from a Hindu temple trust.
Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik’s deteriorating health sparked fresh protests in Srinagar yesterday as the tension over the land row, which has been wreaking havoc in Jammu and Kashmir for the past five weeks, refuses to die down.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman has been on an indefinite fast in Srinagar since Tuesday against the economic blockade and alleged harassment of Muslims in the Jammu region.
Kashmir’s main separatist alliance yesterday said that its supporters will march on a road leading to the Pakistani portion of Kashmir to protest the economic blockade by Hindu protesters. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of the hard-line All Parties Hurriyat Conference, said Hindus have blocked a highway linking the Kashmir Valley with Jammu.
