The understanding between the government and the All Party Hurriyat Conference last night to end all forms of violence in Jammu and Kashmir is a welcome step forward. Although India and Pakistan have advanced their engagement since a new framework for talks was agreed in January 2004, the missing link was a complementary process in the Valley. Islamabad has found it difficult to set a quicker pace for bilateral ties without a sense of political progress inside Kashmir. New Delhi, on its part, was increasingly concerned about the continuing levels of infiltration across the LoC as well as rising levels of violence within J&K and beyond.The essence of the political bargain struck on Monday night is quite simple. The Hurriyat, and implicitly Pakistan, will work for the creation of a peaceful environment in the state while India commits itself to improving the security conditions in the state. If the Hurriyat can persuade the militants to give up the gun and Pakistan clamps down on the terrorist infrastructure on its soil, India will consider significant reduction of its security forces inside the state as well as its operational orientation. For now we only have have promises. If implemented by all sides, there will be new space available for India and Pakistan to take additional steps in normalising ties as well as expanding the interaction between the peoples of J&K across the dividing line.The significance of the agreement between New Delhi and Hurriyat goes beyond the specificities of the political outcome last night. It represents a breakthrough on the very conceptualisation of the Indo-Pak peace process. Until now India and Pakistan have found it hard to agree on how to “associate” dissident Kashmiris within their bilateral engagement. For the moment at least, the Hurriyat and Pakistan have moved away from their insistence on the direct involvement of the Kashmiris in the Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir. India, on its part, has ended its reservations on a serious engagement with the Hurriyat and a political recognition of their role in the peace process. As a consequence, the peace process can now walk on two legs, one represented by the Indo-Pak talks on Kashmir and the other a credible engagement between New Delhi and the dissident groups in Kashmir, including the Hurriyat.
