Author: PTI
Publication: The Daily Excelsior
Date: January 19, 2004
URL: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/web1/04jan19/news.htm#2
Hurriyat Conference today said it
wanted to hold talks with militant leadership in Pakistan on Kashmir issue
after parleys with the Centre and threatened to pull out of the dialogue
process if the Government refuses permission to its leaders to travel to
the neighbouring country.
"We are going to go ahead with the
talks with Government (in New Delhi on January 22). In the second phase,
we would like to travel to Pakistan to take the Kashmiri and militant leadership
across the Line of Control into confidence," Hurriyat chief Maulana Mohammad
Abbas Ansari told reporters at the amalgam headquarters here.
If the Centre refuses to allow the
Hurriyat delegation to go to Pakistan, it would return to the Kashmir valley
and pull out of the talks process, he said.
"It all comes down to the sincerity
of the Centre. If it is sincere on resolution of Kashmir issue, we will
be allowed to visit Pakistan," Ansari added.
The Hurriyat chairman said over
the past two days, the amalgam had convened a series of meetings to build
a broader consensus before heading for talks with Deputy Prime Minister
L K Advani.
"We had invited parties outside
the Hurriyat and people from a cross-section of the society including intellectuals
to get their views on the talks. Most of them supported the dialogue process,"
he said.
Hurriyat sources said yesterday's
session was a stormy one with senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah
raising questions about the amalgam "hurrying" into the dialogue process
without taking all parties, including those outside the Hurriyat, into
confidence.
Shah had a heated argument with
the Hurriyat leadership as he contended that the amalgam had already taken
a decision to go ahead with the talks and the meetings in this regard were
just an "eyewash", the sources said.
Ansari and former chairman Abdul
Gani Bhat offered to pull out and include Shah in the delegation to New
Delhi but the latter refused, the sources added.
Shah was adamant that he was not
interested in directly being part of the dialogue process but wanted a
united separatist platform that would include chairman of the rebel faction
of the Hurriyat Syed Ali Shah Geelani, they said.
Shah, who was ousted from Hurriyat
then led by Geelani in 1996 for violating the amalgam's dictum, said Hurriyat
should try to build a regional consensus involving groups of Jammu, Kashmir
and Ladakh.
Activists of Islamic Students' League
reportedly barged into Hurriyat headquarters yesterday, seeking clarification
about a statement on the party's 'decision' to join the amalgam.
They said in the post-split scenario,
the party had decided to stay away from both factions of the Hurriyat.
The league is headed by jailed militant
leader Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi.
