PM's visit not linked to dialogue with separatists: Omar

SRINAGAR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the Kashmir Valley June 7 is not linked to the resumption of a dialogue with separatist leaders, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said Monday.

"The prime minister is not coming here to start the dialogue process. He is coming here to attend the convocation of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology," Abdullah told reporters here Thursday evening.

The chief minister, however, maintained that the prime minister had kept the doors for dialogue and reconciliation open with anybody who shunned violence.

"Certainly he would get engaged with the dialogue process at a later stage, but I don't think there is any possibility of him talking to the separatists during his upcoming visit to Kashmir."

He said the dialogue process had to be initiated by the union home ministry.