Indian PM invites APHC for talks
From Meerza Iqbal Baig

NEW DELHI—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other leaders for talks on September 5.
This will be the first interaction between the moderate separatist group and the UPA dispensation as part of the dialogue process.
“The Prime Minister has invited Hurriyat Chairman and other leaders for talks,” the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru said.
Manmohan has been maintaining that he was ready to hold talks with any group that eschewed violence. The PMO has been in touch with the Kashmiri leaders through various interlocutors for quite some time now.
The Hurriyat had held two rounds of talks with the then Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani in the NDA government in 2004.
Manmohan’s talks with Hurriyat will take place ahead of his meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on September 14 in New York on the sidelines of UN General Assembly.
A Congress leader from Jammu and Kashmir is also understood to have played a role in bringing the two sides together, sources said.
Meanwhile In the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation, the Hurriyat Conference is meeting in Srinagar tomorrow to discuss the agenda of the talks besides formulating the delegation for the dialogue.
“We have accepted the invitation in principle and we will be meeting tomorrow to discuss the agenda and delegation for the talks,” Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said over phone from Srinagar.
He, however, refused to divulge whether the invitation was verbal or written.
Mirwaiz said the Hurriyat team was expected in the capital on Sunday.
This will be for the first time that Hurriyat leaders would be meeting the Prime Minister after the Congress-led UPA government came to power.
Agencies add: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday invited the moderate Hurriyat Conference leaders for talks here on September five, marking the APHC’s first highest-level interaction with New Delhi.
Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who will lead the delegation, immediately accepted the invitation for the talks that will take place nine days ahead of Singh’s meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York. “The Prime Minister has invited Hurriyat Chairman and other leaders for talks,” the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru said.
The Hurriyat has been insisting on holding talks with the Prime Minister only although the government had proposed meetings with Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The separatist leaders had held two rounds of talks with the then Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani in January and March last year in previous NDA government.
“It was our demand that the talks should be held at the highest level. So we have agreed to meet the Prime Minister on the scheduled date,” Farooq told PTI in Srinagar.He said a joint meeting of the Hurriyat Executive Committee, General Council and Working Committee will be held tomorrow to work out a strategy for the talks, the first with the Congress-led government since it came to power in May last year. Singh has been maintaining that he was ready to hold talks with any group that eschewed violence. A faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq will meet tomorrow in Held Kashmir to decide the future course of action with regard to resumption of the stalled dialogue process with the Central Indian government.
“Hurriyat Conference will meet to discuss the future strategy with regards to resuming the talks process,” amalgam sources were quoted as saying in IHK. A section of Hurriyat leaders were of the opinion that the invitation for talks should come from the highest level at the Centre as they had already held two rounds of talks with then Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, said a news report.
Hurriyat leaders have maintained that they were ready to enter dialogue with Centre again provided the talks were Kashmir-centric aimed at resolving the long-pending issue, the sources said. At a recent press interaction, Mirwaiz Omer Farooq had put onus on Central government to fix the date and venue for talks.
In occupied Kashmir, senior Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Gilani has said that Kashmiris’ liberation struggle is just and genuine and has been authenticated by world powers, especially the European Union.
According to Kashmir Media Service, while addressing a public gathering at Hajin, in Baramulla district, he pointed out that last year a delegation of the European Union visited the occupied territory and came to conclusion that Kashmiris were pursuing a just and genuine cause that they should be given their birth right to self-determination.