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Binoo Joshi
In a major post-Agra summit development, the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference has now expressed its willingness to talk to the Indian government's chief negotiator, KC Pant.
According to sources, the Hurriyat has conveyed through emissaries its intentions to talk to KC Pant, the man New Delhi has appointed to act as via media between the central government and the political groups including the APHC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Hurriyat leadership hopes that Pant would 'exclusively meet us and none else during his next visit,' a senior executive council member of the APHC said on the condition of anonymity.
Over the past week, the group has given enough hints of its keenness for a dialogue with the central government to solve the Kashmir tangle. This has been evident from the utterances of its leaders and is being seen as the most important post-Agra summit political development in the state.
The Hurriyat's latest overture is important, as the group had refused to meet Pant when he had first visited the state in May-June to interact with various social and political groups ahead of the Agra summit. He had met leaders of almost all political formations in the state's three regions - Kashmir Valley, Ladakh and Jammu regions.
"We are not meeting him because we cannot talk as part of the crowd," APHC chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat had said then. He had stated the talks should be held exclusively with the important parties and not with all the people.
But all this appears to have changed in the past few days with even hardliners voicing the need for talks.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Jamaat-e-Islami ideologue and former APHC chairman, told a press conference on Wednesday that the Hurriyat was open to 'meaningful dialogue'.
"The Hurriyat was never opposed to any dialogue. After all solution will come through talks and talks alone," he said.
Geelani has been the biggest supporter of the armed violence in Kashmir. In a recent interview, he had said that the 'armed struggle was necessary to achieve the political ends'.
Another former APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, had indicated on Tuesday that the Hurriyat would approach the issue of resolving the Kashmir issue through dialogue with an open mind and on the 'merit of the offer by the centre'.
Indo-Asian News Service
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