Pak fails to unite warring Kashmiri separatists

New Delhi, Nov 15: Pakistan has once again failed to unite warring Kashmiri separatist groups and persuade them to set aside their differences as they refused to meet visiting Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan together here last evening.

The separatists held one-on-one meetings with Mr Khan over a period of five hours last evening and discussed the Kashmir issue vis-a-vis inclusion of the people of the state in the dialogue process.

Pakistan has been trying for long to pursue the separatists to sink their differences and come together under one aegis ''in the larger interest of Kashmir issue''.

A four-member moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation-led by Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Democratic Freedom party Chief Shabir Ahmed Shah, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) President Yaseen Malik and Hardline Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani called on the Pakistan Foreign Secretary.

Barring the moderate Hurriyat Conference, the invitations to the other groups stated 1700 hrs as the time for the meeting. But the deeply faction-ridden secessionists insisted on holding the discussions separately.

As a last-minute change, Pakistani officials were compelled to reschedule the meeting and arrange for back-to-back meetings.

After Mr Shah, who was the first to call on Mr Khan at about 1700 hrs, the moderate Hurriyat team followed.

Mr Geelani, who was scheduled to meet the Pakistani diplomat next, did not enter the premises of the Pakistan House, for about 15 minutes to avoid a run-in into the delegates of the moderate Hurriyat Conference. He preferred to wait in the cab, parked by the roadside instead.

After the meeting, Mr Geelani said he asked Pakistan to ensure that India ''fulfills its commitment to hold a plebiscite'' in Jammu and Kashmir, as part of the UN resolution on the vexed issue, and allow the ''people to decide their fate''.

''India must give the people of Jammu and Kashmir the opportunity to decide their own fate and they must decide on their own whether they want to stay with India or Pakistan,'' he said.

''India must accept Kashmir as a dispute and release all jailed Kashmiri people and withdraw its forces from Jammu and Kashmir to make the dialogue meaningful and result-oriented,'' he said.

The moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation impressed upon the Pakistan Foreign Secretary to take forward the dialogue process with India in the larger interest of peace in the southasian region. ''We welcome the resumed dialogue between India and Pakistan. It is a step in the right direction and it should be taken forward towards its logical end,'' Hurriayat delegation leader Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat said.

Prof Bhat said talks between India and Pakistan, India and the separatists and Pakistan and the separatists is a joint effort towards resolving the vexed issue.

''We are hopeful that the entire dialogue process will yield result to the satisfaction of all parties concerned and lasting peace will be restored in Jammu and Kashmir,'' Prof Bhat said.

Maulana Abbas Ansari, Bilal Ghani Lone and Aga Syed Hassan were the other members of moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation.

Amalgam Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq could not attend the meeting as he in Cairo to participate in the 56th Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs.

DFP president Shabir Shah, who held the first meeting with Mr Khan, raised the issue of demilitarisation and formation of a Working Group of representatives of India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

''We impressed upon Mr Khan to convey to the government of India to demilitarise Jammu and Kashmir at the block level. Custodial killings and human rights violations are rampant and demilitarisation will help infuse confidence among the people of the state,'' Mr Shah said.

He said he had urged Mr Khan to form a Working Group of the representatives of India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people to resolve the vexed issue.

''The formation of the working group would help in providing the benefits of the Confidence Building Measures to the people of the state.'' ''The confidence building measures taken by New Delhi and Islamabad have no impact at the ground level in Jammu and Kashmir.

I told the Pakistan Foreign Secretary to raise this issue with his Indian counterpart,'' he said.

Mr Malik, who was last to meet Mr Khan, also raised the issue the issue of involvement of the Kashmiri people in the dialogue process.

''Involvement of the people of Kashmir in the peace process was discussed at the meeting,'' he said.

UNI

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