Centre realises red lines don’t work: Hurriyat

SRINAGAR: Union minister VK Singh’s statement that separatist leaders can talk to Pakistan high commissioner was on Monday welcomed by the moderate Hurriyat Conference, while the hardline faction said peace will not be restored until promises made by the Centre to Kashmiri people were fulfilled.

While welcoming Singh’s statement, Chairman of moderate Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said the Centre has realised that red lines do not work in politics or diplomacy, the chief of hardline faction, Syed Ali Shah Geelani said peace cannot be achieved till promises made by India to the people of Kashmir at the national and global level are fulfilled.

“It (Singh’s statement) is better late than never. Perhaps the government of India has realised the red lines which they had drawn do not work either in politics or diplomacy,” Chairman of moderate Hurriyat Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told reporters here. Terming it as a “welcome change” and an “acceptance of the reality”, he said there is no other option for India and Pakistan but to engage with each other and take along the people of Kashmir.

He suggested that the Centre need to revisit the policies of “shedding the beaten track and take new initiatives” of former prime minister AB Vajpayee to address Kashmir issue. In a written reply in Parliament on April 28, Singh had said that since the entire state of J&K is an integral part of India and these so-called Kashmiri ‘leaders’ are Indian citizens, there is no bar on their meetings with representatives of any country in India.