Kashmiri leaders snub Indian lawmakers

Over 100 injured as fresh clashes rage in Indian-controlled Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD: Kashmiri separatist leaders on Sunday refused to meet a delegation of Indian lawmakers even as fresh clashes erupted in different parts of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The snub came after All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) chief Ali Geelani, Awami Action Committee (AAC) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief Yaseen Malik had collectively turned down an invitation of talks from Indian-controlled Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.



An all-party delegation, headed by Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh, arrived in Srinagar on Sunday for talks with different stakeholders and groups in the disputed valley to help end weeks of unrest that was sparked by the killing of separatist leader Burhan Wani on July 8. Since then, the valley has been under almost non-stop curfew and frequent clashes have seen over 70 people die while over 8,000 are injured – mostly from pellets fired by Indian forces.



A group of four Indian opposition lawmakers, including CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and RJD’s Jay Prakash Narayan, broke off from the delegation and proceeded towards Geelani’s residence.

But the APHC leader, who has been in detention since July 27, refused to meet them.

“We have made our approach and outreach to all stakeholders including leaders of the Hurriyat. Hope this will lead to some sort of a forward momentum, in first restoring peace and normalcy and then proceeding towards a political dialogue and unconditional talks and then reaching out to some degree of a political settlement,” Yechury said after being turned away, the Indian Express reported.



As they waited for the doors to open, protesters gathered and shouted slogans ‘Go India, Go Back’. Geelani saw the lawmakers from his window but refused to meet them.

The group then tried their luck with Malik – who is currently being held by the Indian Border Security Force in Humama. He, too, refused to speak with them, telling them that talks could happen when he visits New Delhi.

Separately, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen  (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi went to meet Farooq in Chashma Shahi sub-jail where he is detained. Mirwaiz only met Owaisi briefly and exchanged pleasantries.

Earlier in the day, the three separatist leaders in a joint statement rejected the invitation to meet the all-party delegation led by Singh, terming it ‘deceitful’.

One “fails to understand” what hope to attach with a delegation which has not “spelled out its mandate for any engagement on a clear agenda”, they said in the joint statement. These methods of “crisis management through parliamentary delegations and track-two… can’t take the place of a genuine transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue…,” they asserted. They also lashed out at Mufti, accusing her of playing the “role of obfuscation”.



100 injured in protests

Earlier on Sunday, around 100 people were injured as Indian government forces fired tear gas and shot gun pellets to quell thousands of protesters who pelted rocks and burned a government office in in Shopian district, The Associated Press reported.

The clashes broke out when police used force to stop two ‘freedom’ rallies. More than 100 people were injured when police and paramilitary forces fired tear gas and pellets on protesters in Pinjoora village in Shopian. The pellets were used despite explicit orders from Singh to only use them in special cases.

Angered, people stormed through Shopian town and burnt down the mini-secretariat that houses the district offices of several government departments, including that of the district’s deputy commissioner.

In Anantnag, doctors said at least six people were injured during the protest were brought in for treatment.

Anti-India rally in AJK

Hundreds of Kashmiri refugees staged a rally in Muzaffarabad on Sunday to protest against the visit of an Indian parliamentary delegation to Srinagar. Protesters carrying banners marched from Upper Adda to Geelani Chowk and shouted anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.

Speakers while addressing the rally bemoaned the people killed and injured by Indian security forces over the past two months since the killing of Wani on July 8 and urged the world community to take the notice of Indian state aggression in the disputed territory.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2016.