The chairman of the breakaway faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, today said it was imperative for the new Congress-led regime at the Centre to restart negotiations with Pakistan and later engage separatist groups in the dialogue process. Geelani said his group is willing to talk to the Centre provided New Delhi and Islamabad hold meaningful, result-oriented dialogue for permanent settlement of the Kashmir issue.‘‘New Delhi should convince Kashmiris that they are sincere. The new government should be ready to accept Kashmir as disputed, release all political detainees, at least send back soldiers to barracks, hold plebiscite in both parts of Kashmir, repeal special armed forces acts and allow unhindered political activities of separatists,’’ he said.When asked if Congress wants to broadbase the dialogue by including him in the ongoing process, Geelani said he was not against sharing the dais. ‘‘Let the talks between India and Pakistan restart. We will analyse them and then decide accordingly,’’ Geelani added.He said if the Congress formed the next government, it had the moral duty to resolve the tangle. ‘‘It was Indian prime minister Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru who took the Kashmir problem to UN and now it should be the moral obligation of the new leader (Sonia Gandhi), who is from the same family, to speed up the process,’’ he added.Geelani said ‘‘no’’ when asked whether New Delhi had tried to contact him to participate in the ongoing dialogue process.Refusing to comment on who is ‘‘a better option for the resolution of the Kashmir problem’’ — the NDA or Congress-led alliance — Geelani said: ‘‘It depends on which government looks at Kashmir from the historical prism and how it recognises the 56-year-old resistance from Kashmiris.’’On whether he was working for reunification of the Hurriyat Conference, he said his party had kept the doors open for everyone. He added that he had written to separatists like Yasin Malik of JKLF, Sheikh Aziz-led People’s League, Shabir Ahmad Shah and other groups to join and work under one platform. ‘‘These parties are mulling over the idea,’’ he added.
