Nothing official about it, I meet friends, give inputs

8216;8216;I have an interest in Kashmir, I have worked here and I have a lot of old friends, so I use the opportunity to talk and explore,8217;8217; he said, adding that the primary reason for his visit is to monitor the implementation of a special Rs 70-cr package from the Centre for his department.

8216;8216;I am not here with any offer for talks or resumption of the dialogue process. I am not an official interlocutor,8217;8217; he said.

8216;8216;I work with the official interlocutor of the government and once I return, I will give my feedback to Mr N N Vohra and the Union Home Ministry,8217;8217; said the high-profile bureaucrat, wearing a traditional Kashmiri phiran.

Habibullah is staying with a friend8212;a retired chief engineer8212;in Srinagar8217;s Rajbagh locality, under J-K police cover.

8216;8216;A lot of people are meeting me here. I have been busy since 8 am today. I did meet separatist leaders as well, but it was not in any official capacity. All of them are old friends,8217;8217; said Habibullah.

8216;8216;I called on Shabir Shah. It was a courtesy call, but we did talk. I keep meeting Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, there is no secret about that. I met him recently in New Delhi as well,8217;8217; he said.

Habibullah has also talked to hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani: 8216;8216;I told Geelani sahib that I am not calling in any official capacity. I made a courtesy call and hopefully, I will meet him as well.8217;8217;

On chances of breaking the dialogue stalemate, Habibullah said: 8216;8216;There are lots of possibilities8217;8217;.

8216;8216;It is extremely premature to spell out the feasible possibilities at this point of time. But one thing is certain, we might disagree, we still need to keep talking,8217;8217; he said.

Habibullah8217;s visit has generated a lot of interest here, as he is seen to have been sent by the UPA government to push the dialogue process with separatist leaders.

Many see Habibullah, a 1968 J-K Cadre IAS officer, as one of the oldest Kashmir hands in the Centre8217;s bureaucracy.

He first rose to prominence when he played a major role8212;as Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir8212;in bringing the Hazratbal crisis in 1993 to an amicable end.

After beginning his stint as Sub Divisional Magistrate, Sopore, Habibullah was Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, during the historic 1977 elections, widely believed to have been the first ever free and fair polls in Kashmir.

He was posted out of the Valley in 1982, only to return as Special Commissioner, Anantnag, when insurgency broke out in 1990.

In July, 1990, Habibullah was posted as Divisional Commissioner8212;the highest ranked civilian officer in the Valley8212;when the administration was in total disarray. In fact, he investigated the Konan Poshpora mass rape, allegedly committed by the Army in Kupwara.

Habibullah was finally transferred out of Kashmir in 2000, after he and then advisor to J-K Governor Lt Gen rtd M A Zaki met with a road accident here.

Bedridden for a while, Habibullah was later posted as head of the Civil Services Academy in Mussouri.

He hit the headlines again recently, when the BJP criticised his Kashmir report, which was prepared while he was working on a fellowship with the United States Institute of Peace USIP. The report highlighted the importance of a US role in resolving the Kashmir dispute and raised the issue of alienation in the Valley.

According to him, the report was misinterpreted. His contention: 8216;8216;US has a role to bring a balance in the India-Pakistan relationship so that once they come to discuss and resolve the sensitive issues, either side does not think that it is some sort of a surrender.8217;8217;

8216;8216;The dialogue process in Kashmir has to be independent,8217;8217; he said.

Habibullah is currently wrapping up a book on Kashmir, which 8216;8216;looks at the problem from within, on the basis of my personal experiences, rather than looking at it from outside as is the case in most books on Kashmir.8217;8217;