NEW DELHI, Feb 20: Practically everyone from Kashmir’s frontline resistance groups has backed out from a round table conference called by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here this week to hear out as many views as he could on the dispute, their representatives said on Monday.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik, who met Dr Singh last week with a demand to include militant leaders in discussions, much like Delhi’s ongoing talks with Naga rebels, told Dawn he was invited to the Feb 25 meet but was not going. He declined to state his reasons.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of the Hurriyat Conference, rejected Dr Singh’s invitation after a daylong meeting of his group’s general council which decided that time was not ripe for an India-backed round table on Kashmir.
The state’s Jamaat-i-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had turned down the invitation days ago.
The move follows private criticism by Pakistani officials of what they see as indifference by the Indian establishment to Kashmir-specific issues in their recent bilateral engagements.
In a statement, the Hurriyat Conference accused the Indian establishment of not doing what was promised in the September meeting between the two.
“We had thought that the Indian side would keep its commitment to improve the situation in Kashmir for the common man. But this has not happened,” the Hurriyat said. People’s Conference leader Bilal Ghani Lone said nothing had changed on the ground in Kashmir since the peace talks with the government began.
