The Hindu : Militants will support peace moves: Hurriyat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 25, 2003

National

National

Militants will support peace moves: Hurriyat

By Our Staff Reporter

Jammu Aug. 24. Close on the heels of his offer of talks, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference chairman, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, today wanted the Central Government to extend the peace process to the militants as well. Talking to The Hindu, he said, ``Jammu and Kashmir is a political issue and nobody can ignore the aspirations of the people for whom they are fighting for. At last every one has to come to the table and discuss the issue. If a sincere peace initiative is started in the State there is no doubt militants would also respond to the offer.''

Asked about the chances of a section of the militant groups jeopardising his latest offer of talks, he said, ``No, not all. Nobody can derail the peace initiative provided it is carried forward with the utmost sincerity from all sides''.The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has already said it will respond to the offer and I do not see them backing out if any sincere move is made.''

On his condition to hold a dialogue only with the Prime Minister, he said, ``do not devalue the offer of talks by nominating an official to talk to us. It does not do justice to the wishes and aspirations of the people for whom we have started a political movement.'' The Central Government should learn from history. Even when there was a so-called elected Government in 1974, the Prime Minister started an exclusive dialogue with the then leader of the people of Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah. Nobody questioned his right to be the leader of Kashmir at that point. Similarly, there should not be any double standards this time too''.

On the new stand of the Hurriyat to include Pakistan at a later stage, he said, ``We have to be practical. For years we are demanding passports to go to Pakistan but due to various reasons this did not materialise and obviously we got to make some adjustments.''

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National