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India set to resume talks with
J&K separatists, AFSPA may go
WSN Network
 SRINAGAR/NEW
DELHI: For the first time since 2006, Indian government is set to
resume talks with Kashmir’s separatist leaders in end-October.
Reduction of
troops in the Valley and phased withdrawal of the controversial
Armed Forces Special Powers Act, both longstanding demands of the
separatists, are among the concessions it may make.
Across the table
with Home Minister P Chidambaram will be Hurriyat Conference
(moderate faction) chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,
Jammu and
Kashmir
Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and Sajjad Lone of the
People’s Conference.
Discussions will
include the government’s earlier promise to discuss with Pakistan
the return of more than 3,000 Kashmiri youth who had gone to
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the ’90s for weapons training.
Earlier, Mirwaiz
Umar Farooq had said he also hoped to initiate a dialogue
simultaneously with Pakistan.
What that
solution will be has not yet been defined, but experts say it could
be more autonomy for the region.
"Hurriyat is
very serious and very keen, we want to resume dialogue with New
Delhi and we want to initiate a dialogue with
Islamabad,"
media reports quoted Farooq, 37, as saying.
"Military means,
use of force, oppression has failed. I am hopeful now that India
realises a growing urge for solution of the
Kashmir
issue."
"We have a very
strong case and we should not be scared to talk," he said. "But we
want peace with honour and dignity, not the peace of the graveyard."
Hurriyat started
talks with New Delhi in 2004, the first between the two sides since
a revolt demanding independence began in 1989. More than 47,000
people have been killed.
Last Round of
Talks
The latest round
of Kashmir talks was held in May 2006. Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and the Hurriyat agreed then to establish a system to
discuss solutions to the dispute over Kashmir, dating from the
partition of the Indian subcontinent in the late 1940s.
Around half a
million Indian troops battle Muslim militants in
Kashmir.
Hurriyat split
itself in 2003 when hardliners headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani
walked out after moderates decided to hold talks with
New Delhi.
30
September 2009
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