‘Track-II’ dialogue continues in Kashmir as panel meets people

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 26

The five-member group dubbed as “Track-II” by various quarters in J&K continued its meetings with representatives of various sections of society on Wednesday here.

The group led by former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha started its first meeting with representatives of Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), which will be followed by a meeting with Hameeda Nayeem-led Kashmir Centre for Social and Developmental Studies (KCDS), other civil society members and J&K Bar Association. The group is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in the evening, said Kapil Kak, who has been involved in Track-II diplomacy between New Delhi-Islamabad-Kashmir for the past 16 years.

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Former Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah met National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday evening for dinner. “We talked about the present situation and the importance of our visit to Kashmir,” Habibullah, who is part of the five-member group, told The Tribune.

Abdullah, before leaving for New Delhi, was holding a meeting with his party leaders.

In a major breakthrough, Sinha-led group held “talks in a positive atmosphere” with senior separatist leaders on Tuesday after a failed attempt by the members of the all-party delegation led by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to Kashmir on September 4.

The Sinha-led group consists of Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, veteran journalist Bharat Bhushan and executive director of the New Delhi-based Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation Sushobha Barve.

After 80-minute-long meeting with Geelani, who is under house arrest, the group emerged out on a positive note. “We talked in a cordial atmosphere. Our aim was to talk (to separatists) and we have been successful in that,” Sinha told reporters after coming out of Geelani’s residence on Tuesday.

Though the delegation members refused to comment about what transpired during the meeting, the move is seen significant as it has broken the ice with the separatists, who since July 8 had refused to engage with New Delhi and had slammed doors on the parliamentarians.

However, Sinha refused to divulge what transpired during the meeting. In an attempt to project the visit as a low-key affair, the members insisted that they should not be seen as a “delegation from the central government.” Instead, Sinha said, “we are people of goodwill and want to share the sufferings and pain of Kashmiri people.”

After the meeting, Geelani said the talks with New Delhi would continue only after the government withdraws cases against separatists and release them.

“All the people and leaders should be released and the cases against them withdrawn so that after consultation a common and collective point of view can be put forward,” Geelani said.

He said the onus of peace in the region, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, lay with New Delhi.

The delegation also met moderate separatists, including Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat and Shabir Ahmad Shah.