Track-two diplomacy: Indian delegation meets Hurriyat leaders

We have told Delhi Kashmiris demand independence, says Mirwaiz.

India’s former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday led a delegation that met Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, just a day after he was released from a two-month detention, apparently as part of India’s track-two diplomacy to quell the ongoing unrest in Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK).

The delegation included India’s former air vice marshal Kapil Kak, negotiator Wajahat Habibullah and journalist Bharat Bhushan. All the members of the delegation have been members of the Indian track-two diplomacy adopted during India’s former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s era.

Sinha, who is also a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed that it was not a governmental delegation. However, after one and a half hour long meeting Farooq said: “It does not matter even if it is a governmental delegation. We have told them to communicate to the Indian government that people here demand independence and the government has answered this demand by cruel oppression.”

The delegation also met Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani, said BBC Urdu.

When asked if the Hurriyat leaders were amenable to talks, Farooq said: “They liberated me on Monday evening and on Tuesday morning I was told that they have arrived. Maybe I was set free so that I may talk to them. I also talked to Geelani sahib who told me that he has talked to the delegation. He asked me to tell them clearly what we want.”

After the talks Farooq addressed a crowded press conference. “The earlier all-parties delegation was a joke. Yasin Malik was in jail while I and Geelani Sahib were detained at our residences. We have been watching this game of dialogue [for years].”

He said the Kashmiri leadership adopted the course of dialogue after India’s former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee assured that dialogue would be held not under the Indian constitution but within the scope of humanity.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2016.