Separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, have rejected Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s talks offer and asked the all-party delegation to spell its mandate first.
“One fails to understand what hope to attach with a delegation which has neither spelled out its mandate for any engagement on a clear agenda,” said a joint statement issued by the three separatist leaders, which are spearheading the current street uprising.
On Ms. Mufti’s invitation for meeting, the separatists accused the Chief Minister of playing the “role of obfuscation”. “She is trying to mask the brutal military occupation despite killings and injuries of war-proportions,” they alleged.
The separatists said Ms. Mufti’s dominant concern “is to lend credence and credibility” to the Parliamentary delegation”.
“Everyone knows that people have been shouting Aazadi (freedom). In politics, India has deployed deceit and double talk. These deceitful methods of crisis management through Parliamentary delegations and Track-II only prolong the sufferings of the people and can’t take the place of a genuine transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue of the peoples right to self-determination,” they added.
Ms. Mufti as Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president on Saturday wrote a letter to these separatist leaders. Except for Mr. Geelani, who remains under house arrest, the Mirwaiz and Mr. Geelani are behind the bars.
