After the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leadership boycotted the meeting, a group of parliamentarians separately met the hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the moderate leaders, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik.

While Geelani rejected the talks on the ground that the delegation’s mandate was “limited to holding talks within the framework of the Indian constitution,” Farooq and Yasin Malik sent a joint memorandum to the delegation.

Nearly 40 lawmakers from all major Indian political parties visited Srinagar to find ways to address long-standing Kashniris’ demands for self-rule or a merger with predominantly Pakistan.

Two separatist leaders said police had put them under house arrest. They had earlier refused to meet the politicians sent by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been criticized for allowing protests in Kashmir to explode with more than 100 killed this summer. Police declined to confirm the arrests.

“We choose not to meet the delegation (and) instead sent a memorandum,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the region’s chief cleric and chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, said only hours before he was placed under house arrest.

“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.” Since the first death in June, Kashmir has been thrown out of gear by strikes and curfews. Schools, colleges and businesses remain shut. Food and medicine are scarce.

Nearly all the victims have been killed by police bullets, heightening anger against New Delhi.

However, some pro-India politicians in the region met with the lawmakers and asked for concessions, including autonomy for the region and for the repeal of a widely hated law that gives security forces immunity in cases of civilian deaths.

But a massive pro-independence rally was staged in Sopore town as the delegation was holding talks with various pro-India groups in Srinagar. Security forces opened fire to quell the protest in the town, 54 km north of Srinagar, injuring five persons, two of them critically. The ruling National Conference and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party accept Indian rule in Kashmir. As New Delhi’s representatives landed in Srinagar, authorities enforced a strict curfew across the region.

Heavily armed security forces patrolled deserted streets and loudspeakers mounted on police vehicles asked residents to stay indoors in a bid to head off more protests, witnesses said.

“We are now wary that your visit today, however well-intentioned, represents only an effort at short-term crisis management,” Farooq said in his memorandum.

Kashmir’s main opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party reiterated its call for freeing political prisoners and for the withdrawal of the law on immunity to security forces. The ruling National Conference asked that autonomy be given to the state.

— With input from agencies