Kashmir issue can’t be put on the backburner, says Shah

Syed Ali Geelani, leader of the separatist Tehreek-e-Hurriyat group in Kashmir and several others who have been invited to New Delhi for Tuesday’s talks with Pakistan envoy have confirmed their participation.

Mr. Geelani, the octogenarian Kashmiri leader, has been under house arrest for most part of the year. He has been kept imprisoned with a posse of policemen at his doorsteps and has not been allowed to address any gathering or lead prayers and funerals. “We have been told that he would be allowed to go to Delhi despite the house arrest because the Indian government only has a problem in him meeting his fellow Kashmiris,” said the party’s spokesperson Ayaz Akbar.

Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Yasin Malik, chairman of Hurriyat’s moderate faction Mirwaiz Umar and several other separatist leaders are among the other invitees.

Leader of the recently formed third faction of Hurriyat Conference Shabir Shah is meeting the Pakistani High Commissioner on Monday. Mr. Shah, who reached Delhi on Sunday, told

The Hindu , “We will tell the Pakistani High Commissioner that while they can talk about trade, economy and all things, Kashmir remains the most important issue between the two countries and cannot be put on the backburner or in cold storage.”

Mr. Shah questioned the double standards of the Congress saying it had no problem when they were invited before the visit of Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani and Pakistani Prime Minister’s National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz Khan, during their rule.

BJP spokesperson M.J. Akbar said the Pakistani High Commissioner’s “gesture” was an “old tactics” of finding things to disagree about rather than picking up the message so powerfully enunciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi (in his Independence Day speech).

In his Independence Day speech, on August 14, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had referred to Kashmir as the main “source of tension” between India and Pakistan. “By removing this main source of tension, Pakistan and India could find new ways of promoting relations,” Mr. Sharif said ahead of Foreign Secretary talks in Islamabad. During the talks to two diplomats will discuss all “outstanding issues” including the way forward in Kashmir, and will discuss implementation of the new visa regime already agreed to, as well as Pakistan’s declaration of a new tariff regime, or non-discriminatory market access (NDMA), according to sources.