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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah said on Saturday that the All Party Hurriyat Conference must distance itself from terrorists before participating in the forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
APHC leader Abbas Ansari had said on Friday that the organisation might participate in the assembly election.
Talking to rediff.com, Abdullah said that the APHC leaders had started realising that they had to prove their representative character to the world.
"I have seen Abbas Ansari's statement. If they participate in the election it would be welcome, but before they do that the APHC must distance itself from the terrorists organisations which are killing innocent people in J&K," he said.
"In last few months, the APHC leaders had tried to meet envoys of various countries. But they never succeeded. They had to remain content with meeting a third secretary. These countries have told the APHC that they have to prove their representative character and that is why they are talking of participating in the election," the minister said.
Abdullah agreed with intelligence experts that Pakistan had failed to arrest most of the terrorists operating in J&K.
"I agree with the assessment that more then 5000 terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are still roaming freely. Pakistan must arrest all the terrorists belonging to these outfits and ensure that there is no infiltration from across the border into J&K," he said.
Asked if the Centre had taken note of the anti-Sikh posters appearing in the valley, Abdullah said that the state administration had taken a serious view of the development.
"The state government has already initiated some action. This is indeed a serious development," he said.
A senior leader of Kashmiri Pandits, Nancy Kaul, said it was no coincidence that the posters had appeared almost twelve years after the Pandits were forced to flee the valley.
"On January 19,1990, we were forced to leave the valley after a series of attacks on Kashmiri Pandits. I hope that the Sikhs do not leave," she said.
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