Government appoints former IB Director Dineshwar Sharma as special interlocutor on Kashmir

Restarting the dialogue process for solution on Kashmir, government today appointed former IB Director Dineshwar Sharma as special interlocutor for sustained dialogue on Kashmir with all stakeholders.

Making an announcement regarding the same, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said; "Dineshwar Sharma will initiate dialogue with elected representatives of J&K, political parties, different organisations and people."

"Rank of former IB Director Dineshwar Sharma will be equivalent to that of a Cabinet Secy," Rajnath said.


"As a Representative of GOI Shri Sharma will initiate a sustained interaction &dialogue to understand legitimate aspirations of ppl in J&K," he said.

Sharma, a 1979-batch (retired) officer of the Indian Police Service, served as the IB director between December, 2014 and 2016.

Sharma will decide whom he wants to hold talks with, Singh said when asked whether he would have dialogue with the Hurriyat Conference.

"There is no time line or restriction for dialogue," he said.

The initiative has been taken as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address, the home minister said.

It would be interesting to see whether the special representative will only talk to mainstream leaders or also have a dialogue with separatist leaders.

In a crackdown against terror finding, NIA had recently detained separatist leaders Geelani, Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik.

Reacting on the government's decision, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said: "The “legitimate aspirations” of people of J&K is an interesting formulation. Who gets to decide what is legitimate?"