Days before he meets General, PM will talk to Hurriyat

‘‘We have accepted the invitation,’’ Mirwaiz told The Indian Express. ‘‘We hope the talks will take forward the process towards a Kashmir resolution. In our talks, we will try to build trust, know each other as it is for the first time we are meeting.’’

Sources said that after the meeting with the Prime Minister, the political dialogue will be carried further by a special committee. This is likely to include former foreign secretary M K Rasgotra — recently appointed convener of National Security Advisory Board — OSD in PMO under NDA A S Dulat, textile secretary and former Kashmir bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah, J-K interlocutor N N Vohra and Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Saifuddin Soz.

Mirwaiz said his team was ‘‘fully backed’’ by Islamabad and the leadership of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. ‘‘We have had productive talks with Government of Pakistan and now we are talking to Government of India. It is a trilateral effort for the resolution of Kashmir which includes the leadership of Kashmir as well,’’ he said.

Mirwaiz said that his recent Pakistan visit had helped the Hurriyat finetune its strategy for the dialogue. ‘‘Our outlook on the talks has evolved,’’ he said, ‘‘our thrust will be on the political dimension of Kashmir problem. We have also proposals for improving the ground situation like the release of prisoners and bringing an end to human rights violations.’’

His colleague and member of the Hurriyat executive, Bilal Lone, said there were no specific proposals for the resolution of Kashmir. ‘‘In our engagement, we will try to arrive at a consensus solution for Kashmir, acceptable to Pakistan, India and Kashmiris.’’

The invitation to the Mirwaiz group and the timing of these talks is seen as crucial especially as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet Musharraf in the US shortly after. The Mirwaiz group has already had talks with President Musharraf during his New Delhi visit and later when the group travelled to Pakistan. ‘‘This process is now going in a right direction. Now once both Manmohan Singh and Musharraf have had talks with our (Kashmiri) leadership, it will make things easier on the table for them,’’ a Hurriyat leader said.

The Hurriyat doves have another reason to be satisfied. Of late, the Mirwaiz has emerged as a ‘‘consensus dialogue partner’’ for both New Delhi and Islamabad.

Pakistan has sidelined its traditional favourite among Kashmiri separatists, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his hardline Hurriyat conglomerate.

In fact, there has been substantial pressure on several of Geelani’s constituents to shift their loyalties to the Mirwaiz camp. A Jammu-based separatist party has already parted ways with Geelani and a powerful Shia organisation, Anjuman-e-Shari-Shiyan, is joining the Mirwaiz group.

Former JKLF chief Javeed Mir and senior separatist leader Fazal Haq Qureshi, who was an interlocutor during the Hizbul-Centre talks in 2000, are being given berths in top executive committee of the dove camp.

The reasons for Pakistan’s change of heart are clear. Geelani does not fit in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy post-9/11. Pakistan TV recently blacked out a massive rally held by Geelani in Srinagar.

Geelani’s trump card, however, lies in the support from militants who can, through violence, try to jeopardise the entire process.

— with Bhavna Vij-Aurora