Moderate separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday categorically denied that "any quiet dialogue was going on between them and the Centre".
The efforts to forge unity among the various Kashmiri separatist groups received a jolt after hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani rejected the unity move of the moderate, All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday.
Vohra said he would first meet important people in the legislature and based on those interactions, drwa up a programme for future talks.
'Govt of India should stop harping that Kashmir is an integral part of India. They should come out open with their ideas. '
Life was paralyzed in Jammu and Kashmir capital Srinagar and some other towns on Saturday in protest against the killing of a top Muslim cleric on Friday in a powerful blast.
Former foreign minister in the Atal Bihari government Jaswant Singh said that if voted to power the National Democratic Alliance would continue the process of holding dialogue with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and simuatenously engage the All Party Hurriyat Conference as was done during Vajpayee's tenure as prime minister.
Leaders of the pro-dialogue moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference including the conglomerate chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest on Thursday by the authorities in Srinagar to thwart the proposed march and sit-in by them on World Human Rights Day.Almost all the senior separatist leaders of the moderate group, including Mirwaiz himself, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest.
Normal life in Kashmir was disrupted on Tuesday following a strike call given by the hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference against the curbs imposed on its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani in New Delhi, which barred him from leaving the capital.
A shutdown called by the hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) against the alleged molestation and murder of a college girl in north Kashmir Kupwara district once again crippled normal life across the valley on Friday.
"What is the point of holding discussion with the government to government level by New Delhi?" askeed the Mirwaiz.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, has denied news reports that appeared in a leading national paper saying that he did not want travel documents to be issued to rival APHC group chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani when an AHPC delegation visited Pakistan in 2005.
The strike called by the two groups of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference brought in a complete shutdown and undeclared curfew in the Valley on Monday, a day after violence left one person dead and over a dozen people injured in police firing Srinagar.
Fifteen people have been reported killed after a passenger bus fell into a gorge in Reasi area of Jammu district
Life in entire Kashmir Valley was thrown out of gear on Friday following a separatist shutdown and incidents of violence those left 14 persons including six cops wounded.
Separatist groups in Kashmir on Thursday reacted angrily to the death sentence awarded to two locals, who were held guilty by a Delhi court in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case, in which 13 persons were killed.The moderate and hard-line groups of the separatist conglomerate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively, have called for a protest shutdown on Friday against the death sentence.
Life in Kashmir was in Tuesday paralysed in view of a strike called by the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the conviction of six Kashmiris in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case in New Delhi.
Posters printed in Urdu, seen pasted in several villages of Anantnag and Pulwama districts of South Kashmir, have asked people to boycott the polls.
After People's League chief Sheikh Abdul Aziz last week, Shabir Shah has joined the moderate separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq.
"My decision to join the moderate group is aimed at strengthening the separatist voice in Kashmir," Aziz said. "Kashmiris are the basic party to the dispute, and must be included in the ongoing peace process to make it meaningful and result-oriented," he added.
A general shutdown called by All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Thursday affected normal life across summer capital Srinagar and other district headquarters of the valley.
In a related development, protests continued for the second day in north Kashmir's Kangan town, where protesters shutdown markets and blocked the highway leading to the Baltal base camp of the ongoing Amarnath Yatra.
However, the APC failed to make any headway in his proposed formation of working groups as some political parties opposed the move.
'Dr Singh reached out to Pakistan when he said he hopes to have a cordial relations with the neighbouring country but he did not reach out to the people of Kashmir. It is rather unfortunate,' says Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooz
An indefinite curfew was imposed in Srinagar on Monday and restrictions were put in place in other towns to thwart a march called by separatists.To protest the killing of three teenagers allegedly by the police, the hard-line separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked people to march to south Kashmir's Anantnag town on Monday.The forces beefed up security arrangements in the old city area of Srinagar.
Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, the chief spokesman of the separatist conglomerate, said APHC's 'self governance was not something of a concession like autonomy.'
The strike was called to protest the arrest and subsequent booking under Public Safety Act of six of Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's close associates in Srinagar last week.
'America and Britain want a greater role in sorting out the Kashmir problem which they liken to the Palestine problem,' says Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, former chairman of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
The Mirwaiz, currently on a visit to Pakistan had on Saturday sought an 'end to the armed struggle'.
A three-member moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation, led by chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, would leave New Delhi on a five-day visit to Pakistan on Thursday.
The Mirwaiz said that the attack was the 'handiwork of forces who were opposed to peace in Kashmir.'
With Shah's arrest, the authorities have detained almost the entire top brass of the two groups of separatist conglomerate, All Parties Hurriyat Conference, some of whom including Dukhtarani Milaat chief Asiya Andrabi have been detained under harsh Public Safety Act. A senior police officer said Shabir Shah was arrested from a house in the uptown Rawalpora locality on Friday morning. He was immediately taken to an undisclosed destination.
Leaders of the two factions of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference met in Srinagar on Thursday for the first time after their split in 2003. Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, accompanied by another senior separatist leader of his group, visited the uptown Hyderpora residence of Syed Ali Shah Geelani for talks, which continued for over six hours.
A strike to mark the death anniversaries of two senior separatist leaders affected normal life in Srinagar and some other parts of the Valley on Wednesday. Markets and educational institutions remained shut in Srinagar because of the strike, called by the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which is headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq. A rally to commemorate the death anniversaries of the two separatist leaders is scheduled to be held in Srinagar later today.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's announcement to reduce troops in Jammu and Kashmir 'hasty'.
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