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PM-Hurriyat talks: high hopes, low expectations
Panel to draft amendment to APHC constitution
PDP activist among three killed in J&K
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PM-Hurriyat talks: high hopes, low expectations
Jammu, September 4 This was for the first time that the Prime Minister level-talks would be held with the Hurriyat leaders ever since eruption of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. They had held discussions with Mr L.K. Advani when he was Deputy Prime Minister during the NDA regime and also paid a courtesy call on the then PM, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Although there were great expectations from the tomorrow’s meeting, but observers said that only some basics might be worked out for further interaction of the Hurriyat leaders with some high level team that may be nominated by the centre. The Hurriyat leaders had earlier been insisting that they should be allowed to first visit Pakistan and the PoK areas before holding any meeting with the Centre. The UPA government accepted their demand and leaders of the conglomerate recently went across the Line of Control where they extensively travelled and met people of all shades. A former chairman of the Hurriyat, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, after his return from Pakistan had recently told this correspondent that they would meet the Indian leadership with an open mind as they wanted a honourable solution to the vexed problem. The Hurriyat leaders were reported to have chalked out their agenda for the talks in a meeting at Srinagar on Friday. They might seek a ceasefire between the security forces and the ultras. The PM’s invitation to them had come following a series of visits by Mr N.N. Vohra, the Centre’s interlocutor, to the valley and here when he met a cross section of the society to ascertain their views on the issue. Mr Vohra was here a day before the formal invitation was extended by Dr Manmohan Singh to the Hurriyat leaders. Mr Vohra and Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed also met at Delhi before the invitation. Mr Habibullah, who was the Centre’s emissary, also held a closed door meeting with Mr Umar Farooq at Srinagar last week. Significantly, the meeting was being held a couple of days before Dr Manmohan Singh’s September 14 visit to New York where he was expected to meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. However, hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani had said that nothing concrete could be expected out of the Hurriyat’s meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh. While the entire focus in the Kashmir valley had shifted to the PM-Hurriyat talks, the Opposition BJP has urged the Centre to cancel the talks as the Hurriyat represented a “small faction” in the valley. The BJP has demanded that the secular forces should be taken into confidence. Meanwhile, Prof Virender Gupta, president of the Jammu Mukti Morcha (JMM), today said that the people of the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh have their separate aspirations and such the exercise of talks with the Hurriyat would be fruitless. |
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Panel to draft amendment to APHC constitution
Jammu, September 4 Under the present constitution the executive committee of the APHC can have seven members. At present there are only four members, Maulvi Umar Farooq, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Maulvi Abbas Ansari and Mr Bilal Ahmed Lone. The three seats fell vacant after JKLF chief, Mohammed Yasin Mailk, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mr Shabir Ahmed Shah left the APHC. Recently the APHC leadership was under pressure for increasing the size of the executive committee. Already Mr Fazl Haq Qureshi, Aga Hassan Budgami and Mr Javed Ahmed Mir desired to set included in the executive committee. There are several others demanding inclusion in the executive committee. Senior APHC leader, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, while confirming that there were many aspirants for membership of the executive committee, said that without amending the constitution all genuine aspirants could not be taken members of the committee. These aspirants had put pressure on APHC leadership for discussing the matter in the last meeting of the executive committee. But the meeting of the committee held in Srinagar on September 1 did not discuss the issue. It only discussed an invitation by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in which the APHC leaders were invited for a dialogue in Delhi on September 5. The committee accepted the invitation and left for Delhi today. In fact demand from several members of the party’s general council was the result of their desire to be involved in the talks with the Prime Minister. However, the APHC leadership did not accept the demand of Aga Hassan
Budgami, who recently quit the Tehrilk Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and Mr Javed Ahmed Mir. Instead it included Fazl Haq Qureshi on the plea that he had been associated with the two rounds of talks APHC leaders had held with former Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani. A senior APHC leader said that had there been the demand only from three general council members, Mr Javed Ahmed Mir, Aga Hassan Budgami and Fazl Haq Qureshi for inclusion in the executive committee it could have been cleared without amending the party’s constitution because three seats were vacant. Since there were many in the race there was need for amending the constitution. APHC leadership is not prepared to enrage some general council members forcing them to quit the amalgam at a stage when the Hurriyat Conference had assumed a semblance of a representative character and when Pakistan government had already recognised it as the representative of people of Kashmir. Hence many senior leaders favour increasing the size of the executive committee. |
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PDP activist among three killed in J&K
Srinagar, September 4 Militants shot dead a PDP activist, Mohammad Abdullah Dadsari, at Panchalpora in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district last night, the spokesman said. Dadsari was a retired teacher. Militants shot dead SPO Javed Ahmad Teli at Kounsar Mohalla in the Chadoora area in Budgam district today, he said. The police recovered a bullet-riddled body of Mohammad Younis from the forest area of Pushana village in Poonch district last evening, the spokesman said, adding Younis was kidnapped by the militants from his house on August 18. A local leader of the PDP was shot at and injured by militants in the downtown city last night, he said. Zonal president of PDP Ali Mohammad Wani was shot at by militants at Safakadal when he was returning home after offering prayers at a local mosque, the spokesman said. Wani was rushed to hospital where his condition was stated to be serious. Manzoor Ahmad Chilloo, a guest of Wani, was injured in the shooting incident. The security forces apprehended a self-styled operation commander of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit and seized a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from him, the spokesman said. The Hizb commander has been identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Thokar, a resident of Damhal Hanjipora in Anantnag district. Four hand grenades, two UBGL grenades, three AK magazines and 60 rounds were seized from him, the spokesman said. An overground worker of Lashkar-e-Toiba was apprehended by the security forces from Mohalla Syed Sultanpora in the Sopore area of Baramula district last night and two hand grenades were seized from him, he said. The security forces busted a militant hideout at Abdullah Hut in the Karnah area of Kupwara district today and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from it, the spokesman said. The recoveries include one sniper rifle, 17 sniper rounds, three pistols, six magazines and three rounds, one AK magazine, 3,000 AK rounds, 10 kgs of RDX, six UBGLs, 55 UBGL grenades, 80 hand grenades, five IED remotes and 10 detonators, he said. Meanwhile, in yet another major haul, the Army and the police recovered four quintals of explosives in Anantnag district.
— PTI |
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