The Hindu : Hurriyat not to meet Vohra

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2003

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Hurriyat not to meet Vohra

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR APRIL 22. The Centre's interlocutor, N.N. Vohra, today began his "mission Kashmir" with the meetings with the Opposition National Conference and Communist Party of India. The All-Party Hurriyat Conference and the Democratic Freedom Party led by Shabir Shah have refused to talk to him.

Mr. Vohra, who continued to be confined to the State guest house here for the second consecutive day, met a two-member delegation of the CPI led by its State secretary, A.R. Tukroo. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes. "We put forth our point of view that talks should be held with all sections of society in order to achieve the goal to restore peace in Kashmir," a CPI leader said.

Late in the evening, a high-level delegation of the NC led by its president, Omar Abdullah, met him for over two hours. Accompanied by the senior leaders, Abdur Raheem Rather, Moulvi Iftikhar Ansari and Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mr. Abdullah, according to party sources, sought clarification from Mr. Vohra about his mission. The delegation stressed the need to invite separatists for talks in order to make the entire process meaningful. A solution to the problems in Kashmir lay in restoring greater autonomy to the State in the light of the report prepared by the NC and the resolution passed by the State Assembly in June 2000, it maintained.

Mr. Vohra is scheduled to meet the Congress leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz, the ruling People's Democratic Party president, Muzaffar Hussain Beig and the People's Democratic Forum leader, M.Y. Tarigami, in the next few days.

He may also call on the Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, but the State Government will be officially represented by the Housing and Urban Development Minister, Ghulam Hassan Mir.

"The Hurriyat will not meet him as it is meaningless to initiate talks with an emissary who has no clear mandate," a senior Hurriyat leader told The Hindu. But a formal decision will be taken in the Hurriyat's executive meeting on Thursday. Sources said the Hurriyat Conference was still waiting for a formal invitation from Mr. Vohra, which is unlikely to be extended. The APHC chairman, Abdul Gani Bhat, dismissed the visit as insignificant. Shabir Shah also expressed his inability to meet Mr. Vohra. "Talks at the level of interlocutors cannot yield any result. These should be initiated at the level of Prime Minister. We have seen the fate of the K.C. Pant mission which had no direction like this one," he said. The People's Conference chairman, Sajjad Lone, is also sceptical of the Vohra mission. "Why is he here, what is his mission, I think only he knows. So, in my opinion, it deserves no comment," he told this correspondent.

Mr. Vohra's visit coincided with the visit of A.S. Dulat, officer on special duty in the Prime Minister's office. Nothing is known about his mission but in the past, Mr. Dulat, a former RAW chief, was active in wooing various separatist leaders, particularly during the elections.

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