SRINAGAR, 30 August — Kashmir’s chief minister said he has been invited by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to discuss ways to grant more autonomy to the insurgency-rocked state.
“I have been conveyed that the prime minister is ready to discuss the autonomy issue with me and he has invited me to New Delhi,” Farooq Abdullah told reporters late Tuesday.
Farooq said the message was relayed to him in a telephone call by former Defense Minister George Fernandes, whose Samta Party is part of Vajpayee’s ruling National Democratic Alliance. The chief minister said he was willing to go to New Delhi anytime after Sept. 1.
He added that the coalition has set up a committee, to be headed by Delhi’s point man on Kashmir K.C. Pant, to “remove misunderstandings between Delhi and our government over the issue” of autonomy.
Farooq’s ruling National Conference (NC) passed a resolution in the state assembly last year seeking autonomy for the state except in matters of defense, finance, foreign affairs and communications. But the resolution was immediately rejected by Vajpayee’s coalition, which said the move would inspire separatism.
The NC has vowed to push forward the autonomy plan, which was the party’s main plank in 1996 provincial polls that brought it to power. Kashmir enjoyed wide autonomy until 1953. Home Minister L.K. Advani on Monday said that Delhi was willing to hold talks with Farooq on “special powers” for Kashmir.
“The government of India has conveyed to Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah that he should discuss with K.C. Pant as to what kind of special powers the state needs so that development and welfare of people of the state can be attended to in a more effective manner,” Advani told reporters. But the proposal was seen as unlikely to satisfy NC demands for Kashmir autonomy.
Three Indian soldiers were killed yesterday when Pakistani troops fired artillery shells across Kashmir border, police said. “Three soldiers were killed when an artillery shell fired by Pakistani troops exploded at Rustum post,” a police official said. “Our troops also retaliated.” Rustum post lies in Uri, 102 km northwest of Srinagar.
Meanwhile, a powerful bomb blast killed six soldiers and two civilians riding in a bus in Kashmir yesterday afternoon, officials said. Four other army soldiers and nine civilians were wounded by the land mine explosion at Hangalpawa town, in Anantnag district, 60 km south of Srinagar.
The explosion destroyed the bus, blowing some of the victims to pieces and leaving a huge crater on the edge of the road, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Thousands of nervous women have begun wearing veils in Kashmir as a deadline set by a separatist group to abide by a strict dress code draws closer.
Shopkeepers said sales of veils and burqas (cloaks) had gone up across the Kashmir Valley after a little-known group, the Lashkar-e-Jabar, fixed Sept. 1 as the deadline for Muslim women to adopt the dress code.
In another development, senior most leader of Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Geelani, said yesterday that he had been put under house arrest by police.
Geelani said police had thrown a ring around his home at Hyderpora on the outskirts of Srinagar. “I have been told not to come out of the house,” he said.
