A day after President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said the Centre would talks with leaders of all groups in Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir Committee (KC) chairman Ram Jethmalani arrived here today and held discussions with Separatist leaders outside the Hurriyat Conference umbrella.Jethmalani, who held talks with Hurriyat leaders in 2002, today met Separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabir Ahmad Shah at their respective residences, raising speculation that the UPA government was sending feelers to players outside the Abbas-led Hurriyat, asking them to participate in the dialogue process.Sources said Jethmalani told Geelani that the latter should help New Delhi re-build Kashmir and its ravaged economy. Geelani is learnt to have said that Kashmiris were not worried about the economy and only wanted a settlement to the Kashmir issue in accordance with the United Nation resolution. ‘‘I asked Jethmalani that if solutions lay in economy, why had they launched a struggle against the British rule when the latter were developing India,’’ Geelani said.Jethmalani then asked him whether concepts like ‘‘internal autonomy or ‘‘partly plebiscite’’ would work in Kashmir. Geelani retorted saying the ‘‘right to self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir would only bring a peaceful solution to the imbroglio.’’When Jethmalani told Geelani that the latter had not contested elections and could not claim to have a ‘‘representative character’’, Geelani said ‘‘Kashmiris do not recognise Indian-run elections.’’ Jethmalani later told him if he intended to visit Delhi in near future, he (Geelani) should get in touch with him. Earlier, Jathmalani met Shabir Shah, who heads the Democratic Freedom Party. Shah told The Indian Express that ‘‘Ram was on an unofficial visit there to condole the death of the uncle of Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’’. Sources, however, said the two held detailed closed-door discussions.
