NEW DELHI,1 September 2005 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, aiming to resume stalled peace talks, yesterday invited the moderate faction of the separatist All-Parties Hurriyat Conference for talks on Sept. 5. The Hurriyat delegation participating in the talks will be led by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq.
The talks are scheduled to be held next week, ahead of a meeting between Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in New York on Sept. 14 to push forward a slow peace process between the nuclear rivals who both claim Kashmir.
“The prime minister has invited Hurriyat chairman and other leaders for talks,” the prime minister’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru told reporters here without elaborating.
Manmohan has been maintaining that he was ready to hold talks with any group that eschewed violence. The Prime Minister Office (PMO) has been in touch with the Kashmiri leaders through various interlocutors for quite some time now. The Hurriyat had held two rounds of talks with the then Deputy Prime Minister L.. K. Advani in the previous government in 2004.
Farooq said the panel had accepted Manmohan’s invitation. A hard-line faction which favors integration of Kashmir with Pakistan has not been invited.
“We have received an invitation and, in principle, have accepted the invitation,” Farooq said in Srinagar. He said he was upbeat about the talks.
“Both India and Pakistan do realize that the time has come to settle all issues, including Kashmir, in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir,” Farooq told the NDTV television channel.
The Hurriyat’s policy-making executive council will meet on Thursday to finalize its stand at the talks, he said.
Analysts said by inviting leaders of the moderate faction of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, Manmohan was sending a message that he was keeping Kashmiri interests in mind.
“The Hurriyat will be established as the de facto bridge and representative of Kashmiri interests in the ongoing discussions between India and Pakistan,” New Delhi-based foreign policy commentator Prem Shankar Jha said.
The Himalayan region has triggered two of three wars between India and Pakistan and New Delhi accuses Pakistan of fuelling the militancy; Islamabad denies the charge.
Kashmiri commentators said by not including the hard-line faction — which is supported by militant groups — Manmohan was ignoring a powerful group.
“There is lot of skepticism about one group being involved in talks while the rest are left out,” Noor Ahmad Baba, head of the political science department at Kashmir University, said. — Additional input from Reuters.
