M A I N   N E W S

Consensus eludes APHC on talks offer
Tribune News Service and PTI

Srinagar, April 21
The Hurriyat Conference working committee today deliberated the Centre’s offer for holding talks with all groups in Jammu and Kashmir over the vexed Kashmir issue but apparently failed to arrive at any consensus and the matter would further be discussed by its general council next week.

After the four-hour meeting, Hurriyat leaders maintained a silence over the outcome of the meeting.

Hurriyat Conference chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said three members each from the seven-party executive expressed their “free, frank and fearless” views about the Centre’s offer.

Bhat refused to give any further details but said the matter would further be discussed at the general council meeting of the 23-party conglomerate on Monday.

The views expressed at the working committee and the general council would be discussed at the Hurriyat’s executive meeting slated later next week, he said.

However, Hurriyat Conference insiders said a majority of the participants doubted the sincerity of the Centre in resolving the Kashmir issue through peaceful negotiations.

Though the leaders favoured talks to resolve the Kashmir issue, they expressed serious doubt about the offer of dialogue made by Centre’s negotiator K. C. Pant, sources said.

The offer was not based on sincerity, the leaders said. Terming the ceasefire as an “eye-wash”, they alleged custodial killings had increased in the state after the truce.

The Centre’s offer to the Hurriyat Conference has come in the wake of the ceasefire which came into effect from the Ramzan on November 28.

The Hurriyat Conference, which is for tripartite talks to solve the Kashmir issue, had early this year decided to send five of its members, to Pakistan for talks with the political and militant leadership there. The visit could not be undertaken as some of the members, including the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, did not have passports. Syed Geelani attended today’s working committee meeting along with two others of his party, including Qazi Abdullah and Ashraf Sahrai. The People’s Conference was represented by its chief, Abdul Ghani Lone, and Dr G. M. Hubbi and Peer Hafeezullah Makhdoomi. Mohammad Yasin Malik, who is currently on a tour to the USA, was represented by Bashir Ahmed Bhat along with two others, Ghulam Rasool Dar and Javed Ahmed Mir. Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, (APHC) chairman and chief of the Muslim Conference, who presided over the meeting was assisted by two of his party colleagues — Ghulam Nabi Sumji and Shabir Ahmed Dar. Sheikh Abdul Aziz, chairman of the People’s League, who went to Pakistan early this week in connection with the marriage of his brother, was represented by Bashir Ahmed Tota, Mukhtar Sofi and Khalil Ahmed Khalil.