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Hurriyat Conference ready for talks with Delhi

Former chairman of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq today said his organisation was ready for talks with the Centre provided the latter accepted them as a party to the Kashmir issue.

"Yes, of course we are willing to hold dialogue with the Centre...but it should be result oriented and ensure ending of the decade-old bloodshed in the state," the Mirwaiz told PTI before leaving Delhi for Srinagar.

He was reacting to the statement made by Home Minister L K Advani yesterday that the government was willing to talk to anyone "within the country."

While emphasising that Hurriyat was for talks, he said no pre-conditions should be attached to these. "Everyone must come to the table with his own agenda," he said.

Stating that all parties concerned with the Kashmir issue -- India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir -- should be at the table for talks, the Mirwaiz said a "conducive atmosphere" should be created for talks.

He also said that the Centre should accept Kashmir as a core issue for improving relationships with Pakistan.

"It is high time that the Centre accepted the fact that a proper and unconditional dialogue with us or the true representatives of Kashmiris was the need of hour," the Mirwaiz added.

Referring to the autonomy resolution passed by the Jammu and Kashmir assembly and its subsequent rejection by the Union Cabinet, he said: "This is of no significance to Kashmir."

"The autonomy resolution has received scant response from the people in the Valley. In fact, it has met with a violent reaction from people in Jammu and Ladakh," the Mirwaiz said.

"Such tactics are aimed at dividing Jammu and Kashmir," he added.

"When we speak of a solution to the Kashmir problem, our focus is on the entire state, including the parts under Pakistan's occupation, and the autonomy issue touches only a small part of the problem," the Mirwaiz said.

A result oriented dialogue with the Centre should focus on the core issue and not the grant of greater autonomy, "which is totally irrelevant in the present context," he said.

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