J-K Track Two may lead to third front

The Dubai conference, which has already created ripples, was attended by the chief of Pakistan’s Kashmir Committee, Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, the Hurriyat’s moderate heavyweights Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone and a galaxy of separatist leaders from Britain, USA and Canada.

The Chandigarh meeting was attended by former Pakistan foreign secretary Najam-ud-din Sheikh and a high-profile member of Musharraf’s Kashmir Committee, Naseem Zuhra, besides Peoples League leader Khalil Ahmad Khalil, who represents the outfit in the seven-member Hurriyat executive.

The Dubai conference had proposed an immediate end to the violence and recommended peaceful political means for

achieving a settlement on the Kashmir dispute. This strategic shift could have been only music to New Delhi, which sees violence as the main problem in Kashmir. The conference, however, was also an important milestone for its other agenda: the formation of a wide separatist forum with due representation from either side of the Line of Control. In fact, the Hurriyat leadership here had said it was kept in the dark about the meeting and vented its ire on the two leaders, who said they had attended it in their personal capacity.

The Chandigarh event was a seminar organised by former foreign secretary Salman Haider. It was attended by the Irish ambassador in India besides Prof P N Dhar, principal secretary to Indira Gandhi, Mateen Zubairi and Amitabh Matoo of JNU and S D Gupta, former Indian high commissioner to China S D Gupta. However, the three-day conference was significant because of the presence of two Pakistani participants, deemed close to the Musharraf regime — Najam-ud-din Sheikh and Naseem Zuhra.

There was no joint communique at the end of the Chandigarh meeting but a proposal put forward by former Peoples League leader G M Naiku underlined how the conference mirrored the Dubai engagement. Naiku proposed an end to insurgency and a commitment from both countries to resolve the Kashmir dispute bilaterally within 20 years. This proposal was appreciated by the Pakistani participants as well.

Significantly, this meeting brought together the two sections of the Peoples League’s political and militant leadership which no longer see eye to eye — Khalil Ahmad Khalil and Naiku. (The commissioner of Hurriyat’s parrallel ‘election commission’, Siddique Wahid, and a former militant commander and NC legislator, Firdous Baba, who heads the Kashmir Foundation for Peace and Development Studies, were also present.)

Although Khalil denied there was any move to form a third front, he admitted they were not happy with the Hurriyat leadership. ‘‘We as an executive constituent of the Hurriyat want it to put forth innovative strategies for some headway in resolving the issue. We cannot ignore the global changes. We don’t need to surrender our cause, and initiating new strategies to keep pace with the global changes doesn’t mean surrender,’’ he said.

‘‘The way Lone sahib and Geelani sahib stick to their different viewpoints, it only indicates our dissensions which is not healthy.’’

The reference to the post-September 11 shift in international opinion was the main argument put forth in Dubai for an end to violence. Khalil’s views, a major departure from the PL’s hardline stance, may not pose an immediate threat to the Hurriyat but it will weaken the hardliners within the conglomerate, which has to elect a new Chairman in July. And the PL vote in the seven-member executive has always been decisive.