Govt may release prisoners before talks with Hurriyat

In an attempt to get the Hurriyat Conference leaders talking, the government is in favour of releasing some political detenues before the th...

In an attempt to get the Hurriyat Conference leaders talking, the government is in favour of releasing some political detenues before the third round of dialogue.

Sources said this was discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Shivraj Patil to review the Kashmir situation today. Concerned over the reluctance of the Hurriyat Conference to come forward for the next round of peace process, senior government officials considered the release of some more detenues languishing in jails without charge of any heinous crime.

The NDA government had already released a number of prisoners as was demanded by the Hurriyat leaders. The process came to a virtual halt after the Congress-led UPA said it wanted to review the progress made in first two rounds.

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Today’s meeting was attended by Centre’s J-K interlocutor N.N. Vohra, National Security Advisor J.N. Dixit, Special Advisor in PMO M.K. Narayanan, Intelligence Bureau Director A.K. Doval, Secretary R&AW C.D. Sahay and Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh.

The Home Secretary was asked to initiate the process of screening the detenues after seeking the list from the state government, sources said.

The Centre, meanwhile, was still awaiting the reponse of the Hurriyat leaders for talks. The recent developments — of stepping down of Maulana Abbas Ansari as chairman of Hurriyat and refusal of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq to take over the post — was likely to defer the talk process, sources added. Law and order in the state was also discussed.

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