Centre’s Kashmir move may open talk possibilities

SRINAGAR: The Centre’s decision to halt combat operations in Kashmir and home minister Rajnath Singh’s statement on extending the relief beyond Ramzan have opened the possibilities of talks as all stakeholders are in favour of the resumption of the dialogue process.

J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is in the national capital, has welcomed the Union home minister’s statement. Mufti is likely to meet senior BJP leaders, including Rajnath Singh to push for talks. The special representative for J&K, Dineshwar Sharma, who visited the Valley last week, told ET: “There are positive signs and I am hopeful something good will happen.

People are very happy. I have received positive feedback.” Sharma will again visit Kashmir after Eid. J&K chief minister said the Hurriyat leadership should display maturity and seize this opportunity for ‘dialogue and reconciliation’ to get J&K out of the unending cycle of violence. “GoI has taken a massive step ahead. We also cannot be rejectionists all the time. Separatists, Pakistan and civil society of Kashmir, whose children have gone into this gun culture, have to take the initiative now,” J&K government spokesperson and PDP minister Naem Akhtar told ET.


The NDA’s initiatives, Akhtar said, were policy decisions and should not be linked with any election processes. “Ruling party of India, which holds biggest mandate, has come out with this offer (of dialogue/ceasefire). It is beyond headlines and beyond electoral gains,” he said.

Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said they will support any initiative for permanent resolution of Kashmir issue, but maintained that they will ‘wait and watch’ for some days and see how Singh’s remarks translate into practice.

The Centre, a senior bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir said, also wants to create an atmosphere for upcoming elections in the state.