New Delhi/Srinagar, December 5
Laying to rest any speculation on the matter following the last night attack on moderate Hurriyat leader Fazal-ul-Haq Qureshi, Home Minister P Chidambaram today made it amply clear that the attack on the leader would not be allowed to derail the peace process in Jammu and Kashmir.
Terming it as a “cowardly act”, he said he was “deeply disturbed” by the attack on Qureshi. “The cowardly attack won’t be allowed to derail the peace process. We will continue the quiet dialogue with all shades of opinion (in Jammu and Kashmir),” Chidambaram said in a statement issued by the Union Home Ministry.
Without taking names, he took on Pakistan and Pakistan-based militant groups. “These are the elements which, in the past, have pushed Jammu and Kashmir to the brink of a crisis. It is also clear that these elements act at the behest of forces that are inimical to India,” he said.
Even the same sentiments echoed in Srinagar. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the attack on Qureshi and blamed it on the elements who were not in favour
of a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue.
Omar also expressed the hope that the attack would not come in the way of talks between the Hurriyat Conference and the Centre, for which fresh initiatives had been taken recently.
Some leaders wanted the dialogue process to move forward but there were certain forces that were not in favour of a dialogue that would lead to peace in the state, he added.
Even National Conference president and Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah also condemned the attack on the Hurriyat leader and prayed for his early recovery. He said the situation in the state was fast improving and called upon all shades of opinion to come forward for peaceful and dignified solution that was acceptable to the people of three regions of the state.
Qureshi, a senior leader of the moderate Hurriyat group headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has been a supporter of the dialogue process to solve the Kashmir issue peacefully. He was critically wounded last evening when four men shot at him from close range.
The attack is largely seen as a warning to the Mirwaiz and his colleagues to stop attempting to talk to New Delhi. “Quiet talks” are going on between the Centre and the separatist leaders of Kashmir.
Condemning the “inhuman and brutal” attack, JKLF chairman Yaseen Malik said, “Whoever has done it cannot be part of the human society.” Qureshi (65) was shot in his head twice by terrorists last evening at Soura in downtown of the city when he was coming out of a mosque after prayers.
He continued to be on ventilator and doctors attending on him described his condition as “very very critical”. He underwent a three-hour-long brain surgery last night.
