M A I N   N E W S

Shabir sends Pant’s letter to APHC

New Delhi, May 20
In a bid to arrive at a consensus on the letter sent by Centre’s interlocutor K. C. Pant, senior secessionist leader Shabir Shah has sent a copy of the communication to several intellectuals, including the APHC leaders.

“I have sent a copy to intellectuals, opinion makers and all seven Hurriyat executive leaders and sought their views on the issue,” Mr Shah told PTI over the phone from Srinagar.

Mr Shah, who is termed as “Nelson Mandela” of Kashmir, said he was eagerly awaiting a reply from them.

In a veiled attack on Hurriyat leaders, the senior leader said he was neither in favour of opposing the process of talks nor imposing any conditions.

“Yes, I would prefer to meet Kashmiri leaders and military rulers in Pakistan but it is not a condition, I can even talk to them from my home,” he said in an apparent reference to the Hurriyat’s insistence on sending a delegation to Pakistan.

Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat, after Mr Shah’s party Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front (JKDFP) had given a positive response to the Centre’s offer for talks, had commented that he was putting “the cart before the horse”. PTI 

Clerk’s suicide: officer booked
Our Correspondent

According to family members of Kartar Singh, who was working as a senior clerk in the CA branch in the Deputy Commissioner’s office, he was not in the good books of Mr Brar since the time he had an altercation with him over the sanctioning of his leave in January which led to strain relations between the two. In the suicide note, Kartar Singh had written that since Mr Brar was nursing a grievance against him, he had tried to harass him on one pretext or the other and had delayed the payment of his salary.