Kashmir unrest: Hurriyat ready for dialogue with Centre, but without pre-conditions

A protester hurls a stone towards the police during a protest in Srinagar (Source: Reuters)

Senior Hurriyat leader Engineer Hilal Ahmad War on Saturday categorically said that the Hurriyat Conference is ready to hold talks with the Centre for resolving the unrest in Kashmir, adding that they are averse to war and not to dialogue. Speaking to reporters, War, however, said that they would not enter any dialogue on any pre-conditions set by the Centre.

“I think India and its leaders should now open their eyes. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has visited the Valley twice. Entire Kashmir population is on the streets for the resolution of the Kashmir problem. They want a result-oriented dialogue between the essential parties involved in the dispute-Pakistan, India and Kashmiri leadership, which is Hurriyat Conference,” he said.

“I think the Indian leadership must talk with the Hurriyat Conference. We will not enter any dialogue process under the Constitution of Indian Government. It should be beyond the Constitution. There should be no pre-conditions from the Indian Government to enter a dialogue process. We are not averse to dialogue. We are averse to war,” he added.

His remarks comes after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, trained her guns on Pakistan once again, holding them responsible for instigating the youth in violence-hit Kashmir, while asserting that if Islamabad is really concerned about the situation in the Valley, then it will try to help in fixing the crisis rather than fanning the flames.

Addressing the media after her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his 7 RCR residence in New Delhi, Mufti asserted that he was extremely concerned about the situation and that he had expressed his desire to stop the bloodshed in the Valley and also ensured that the state will emerge from the crisis.

“The Prime Minister is quite concerned just the way we are regarding the situation in Kashmir. He re-iterated that the basis of the PDP-BJP alliance is to continue the trend of reconciliation with Pakistan that Vajpayee ji had started and use it to solve the problem in Kashmir,” she said.

“With the situation in Kashmir taking a turn for the worse in the last few days, Pakistan instead of helping us is trying to worsen the situation. They had a golden opportunity to talk about Kashmir when Rajnath ji went to Islamabad recently, but instead he was meted with mistreatment,” she said.