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Kashmiri separatists welcome India's talks offer |
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July 30, 2000
SRINAGAR (AP) - Kashmir's top separatist leader welcomed New Delhi's offer of unconditional talks Saturday and proposed simultaneous discussions with India and Pakistan to solve the knotted five decade dispute. "The proposal reflects a change and could be a step in the right direction," said Abdul Ghani Bhat, the new chairman of an umbrella group of organizations seeking Kashmir's independence from India. "It will certainly help resolve the Kashmir dispute." "We are ready to talk simultaneously to New Delhi and Islamabad," said Bhat, who heads the All Party Hurriyat Conference. He said he had held unofficial discussions with some Indian bureaucrats, confirming reports that backdoor meetings have been taken place to end the 11-year-old insurgency in the Himalayan region. "Our proposal is that four of our representatives can talk to New Delhi and three to Pakistan simultaneously, so that a propitious political climate generates and we are able to achieve peace and stability," Bhat told The Associated Press in an interview at his home. A 1972 cease-fire line divides the mountainous province of Kashmir between India and Pakistan, hostile neighbors who have fought three wars in the past five decades. India controls two-thirds of Kashmir, Pakistan the rest, and both sides claim the entire territory. Some separatist groups want to carve out an independent state. India's Interior Ministry late Friday invited all militant groups and political leaders in Kashmir to hold discussions with the government, newspaper reports said. "The statement has not referred to any conditions, and if this is true this is the first time the Indians are making such a proposal," Bhat said in an earlier telephone interview. "Hurriyat seeks a peaceful settlement of the dispute across the table in the interest of peace and stability, especially nuclear peace, in South Asia," he said. The Pakistan-based chief of the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, Syed Salauddin, made the unilateral cease-fire announcement July 24, saying the outfit was ready for talks with India. Other guerrilla groups vowed to fight on for independence. Daily battles between the guerrillas and security forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir have left more than 16,000 people dead since 1989. Bhat said the cease-fire call was a "hasty step" and the separatist groups would try to reach a common position. "It has to be a collective effort ... we will sort it out," he said. Meanwhile there were conflicting statements from army officers about a halt in military operations against Islamic guerrillas in response to a cease-fire by the main rebel group, the pro-Pakistan Hezb-ul Mujahedeen. Army spokesman Col. Shruti Kant said in New Delhi on Saturday that there had been no change in operations in Kashmir. However, he did not comment on the statement made to The Associated Press, the United News of India and the Press Trust of India on Friday by the top general in Kashmir, Maj. Gen. Basant Singh, who said all offensive operations against militants had stopped on July 25 and field commanders had been told not to mount new ones.
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