The strike called by separatist groups against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday evoked a partial response in the Valley.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday said India "sticks to its stand" that dialogue must be held only on terrorism at the Indo-Pak National SecurityAdvisor-level talks, which are under a cloud over the issue of Kashmiri separatists.
India on Friday made it clear to Pakistan that it should not go ahead with the meeting of its NSA Sartaz Aziz with Hurriyat representatives in New Delhi when he comes to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, saying it will not be "appropriate".
The scheme initially envisaged conferment of proprietary rights of around 20.55 lakh kanals of land (1,2,50 hectares) to occupants of which 15.85 per cent of land was approved for vesting of ownership rights.
Moderate Hurriyat leaders Abdul Gani Bhat and Lone brothers -- Sajjad and Bilal, who have been critical of terrorists recently, stayed away from Pakistan National Day celebrations where People's Democratic Party leader Maulvi Ifthikhar Hussain Ansari was a surprise guest. Both moderate and hard-line factions of the Hurriyat Conference were represented by their chairmen Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively at the Pakistan Day celebrations.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief, who was shifted to Tihar jail under police protection, was taken into preventive custody in February by the Jammu and Kashmir police and shifted to Jammu's Kot Balwal jail.
Geelani was handed the invitation letter from Sharif by Pakistan high commissioner in India Abdul Basit over a dinner at the latter's residence at Tilak Marg in Delhi.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has stoked a controversy by paying tributes to 2 militants who were killed in an encounter in Tral area of Kashmir, in which an army commander and a policeman died.
'We expressed our desire that Centre should halt the continued operations against civilians, including cordon and search and other such actions,' he said.
Authorities were gearing up to question Geelani following claims made by his aide G M Bhat that the money was meant for Geelani and his Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, an amalgam created as a parallel to Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.
After the cancellation of National Security Advisor-level talks, proposed meetings between top military officials of India and Pakistan are now unlikely, a media report said on Monday.
The Hardline Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday alleged that the statements made by Union Defence Minister A K Antony and a senior army commander in the Kashmir Valley were an indication that the Centre was planning to settle the armed forces permanently in Jammu and Kashmir.
'The ISI doesn't trust the Kashmiris. They hate them...' 'We can never take Kashmir for granted, so there is that element of unpredictability. Anything can happen anytime.' 'The next chief minister will still be from the Valley. Even if a BJP chief minister or a BJP chosen candidate comes, he will be from the Valley. And he will be a Muslim.' A S Dulat, the former R&AW chief, on why he is perplexed by the BJP's Mission 44 plan for the J&K assembly election.
Moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday confirmed that Dileep Padgaonkar, veteran journalist and one of the interlocutors appointed by the Centre for Kashmir, had called him for a meeting. "Dileep Padgaonkar called me on Thursday and requested a meeting, which I declined. I told Padgaonkar that it was our stand not to meet them as long as our demands are not met," the Mirwaiz said.
Protests broke out in several areas in Jammu on Thursday against raising of Pakistani flags and pro-Pakistan slogans at the rally held by separatist leaders in Srinagar on Wednesday.
'I don't know who is deciding Indian foreign policy today. I don't know who is deciding how India deals with Pakistan,' former Union minister Ram Jethmalani takes on the Modi government.
Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was detained by the police at the Srinagar airport and put under house arrest soon after his arrival from New Delhi. In the national capital, the chairman of the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference was questioned by the Delhi police in connection with a hawala case. "He was detained at the airport and put under house arrest soon after his arrival from Delhi," said the party spokesperson.
The government may scale down security of Kashmiri separatist leaders, who snubbed members of all-party delegation on Sunday.
Former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday said that the NDA govt has a great inclination of pulling rabbits out of hats.
Senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been asked by probe agencies not to leave Delhi to face investigations in connection to the recently unearthed Hawala money trail in Kashmir.The Hurriyat faction led by Geelani, who is a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, attempted to downplay the investigations in the Hawala case. The outfit also called a bandh in the Valley on Tuesday for the 'harassment' of their leader in Delhi.
A criminal complaint was on Saturday filed in a court in Chandigarh, accusing Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bilal Lone of waging a war against the country by making 'seditious' statements. The complaint was filed by a non-governmental organisation in the court of Judicial Magistrate Paramjit Kaur who fixed December 1 as the date for hearing evidence in the case.
Hurriyat Conference leader Bilal Lone and his brother Sajjad broke their silence on the assassination of their father and separatist leader Abdul Gani Loni, 11 years after his death in 2002. The Lone brothers response comes almost a week after former Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat created flutter by saying that Abdul Gani Lone was killed by their own men.
The Centre will extend invitation to all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir, including Hurriyat Conference, to find ways for resolution of Kashmir issue and restore peace in the state, which has witnessed separatist-sponsored agitation for last three weeks.
The hardline Hurriyat Conference on Saturday rejected Centre's eight-point formula to de-escalate the current turmoil in Kashmir terming it as an "eye wash" even as other separatist outfits maintained a studied silence.
Owaisi said, 'Srinagar is a ghost town. Yeh kya kar diya hai (What have they done)? The people are very angry. It moved us to see that people were searching for milk. We were told that since last three months children were not going to school, medicines or proper food have been in short supply. They said they were being tormented.They can't bear the torture of their youth."
"A permanent Security Council seat in the UN for India means a major injustice, which has no moral ground. How will such a country (India) be made a permanent member, when it has not honoured the body and rejected its resolutions on Kashmir," Chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani said.
Hurriyat Conference on Friday voiced its dismay at India and Pakistan not making much headway at the talks between their foreign ministers, saying the outcome has left people in the Kashmir valley "disappointed."
With educational institutions all set to reopen on Monday in Kashmir Valley, the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, on Sunday asked parents not to send their wards to schools and colleges. "No right thinking person can deny the importance of education in society, but to think that they (government) are concerned about the future of our children is like a mad man's dream," Geelani said in a statement.
In a bid to break the current impasse, teams of the all-party delegation to Kashmir on Monday separately met Hurriyat leaders and gave them a patient hearing but the separatists insisted on withdrawal of Army and asked the Centre to take bold decisions instead of being in a "denial mode".
The Indian Army on Thursday asked Kashmiris not to pay heed to the call given by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to march towards the security forces' camps in the Valley on September 21 to press for demilitarisation of the state.
For the first time in 25 years since the start of militancy in Kashmir, the separatists have not called for a general strike on Martyrs' Day on Monday in view of the fasting month of Ramzan.
A teenager was shot dead by security forces in the Kashmir Valley on Saturday during a strike called by hardline Hurriyat Conference against the recent killing of two youths in an army operation in Tral, prompting the authorities to register a murder case and order a magisterial probe.
Top Kashmiri separatist leaders on Saturday evening joined the iftar party hosted by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the hard-line separatist leader at his uptown residence.
An official said that the search operation turned into an encounter after terrorists fired upon the forces.
Major opposition political parties and separatists groups in J&K on Wednesday slammed the move of the government to create separate townships for Kashmiri pandit migrants.
Authorities on Thursday booked hard-line Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani under the stringent Public Safety Act and placed moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest to foil their planned all-party meet to chalk out the future course of action. "We have booked him (Geelani) under PSA. There are a good number of grounds (for detention) against Geelani. I have signed the PSA warrant against Geelani and as per the orders," said the DM.
Actress-turned-Congress leader from Meerut, Nagma, put herself in a spot after she confused late Shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan with Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday stood by her father's controversial statement.
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