Round II: Govt to seek Hurriyat help

The Centre will seek ‘‘cooperation’’ of the Hurriyat Conference for peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha elections in J-K. This...

The Centre will seek ‘‘cooperation’’ of the Hurriyat Conference for peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha elections in J-K. This was decided in a meeting of Centre’s Kashmir Coordination Committee today which worked out the agenda for the second round of talks between Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and the separatist group on March 27.

The Government plans to tell the Hurriyat leaders that it’s understandable if they do not want to participate in the elections but they should also not give a call for poll boycott.

Other contentious issues, including release of passports of Hurriyat leaders and their plan of going to Pakistan, also came up in the meeting. Sources said it depends on the Hurriyat leaders themselves as they are yet to finalise their plans. The Government indicated that allowing the Hurriyat leaders passage to Pakistan is not really an issue.

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The meeting was attended by OSD in Prime Minister’s Office A.S. Dulat, Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande, Home Secretary Anil Baijal, Centre’s interlocutor N.N. Vohra, Director of Intelligence Bureau K.P. Singh and Special Secretary (J-K) in Home ministry B.B. Mishra. Closely linked to the issue of human rights violation, the Centre also expects the Hurriyat to raise the issue of ceasefire by the security forces.

As far as release of political detainees is concerned, the Government has already released 69 after the first meeting with the Hurriyat. Among these, 24 were locally-trained militants, 19 were over-ground workers from various parts of Kashmir, including Baramullah, Srinagar, Badgam, Anantnag, Pulwama, Udhampur and Doda and 26 were those detailed under the Public Safety Act.