Ahead of his talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir will be meeting leaders of various separatist outfits from Kashmir over the next two days.
A mob set a school bus on fire in Khanyar area of Srinagar on Saturday, official sources said. A group of people stopped a bus belonging to a private school near Rangerstop in Khanyar area on Saturday morning and asked the driver and students to get off. They set the bus on fire.
Ten persons, including six policemen, were injured in protests in Srinagar where the hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had called for a shutdown Friday.
"Quiet diplomacy is secret diplomacy where few people will decide things and force a solution on people of Jammu and Kashmir against their aspirations, sacrifices and 62-year struggle," Chairman of hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani said at a function in Srinagar.
Separatists in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday said the Centre's offer of a 'quiet' dialogue is aimed at thrusting a compromise solution on the people of the state.
After remaining shut for 100 days, schools in Kashmir Valley reopened on Monday, with students and teachers given a free passage by security forces despite curfew and restrictions in many parts. However, attendance was thin against the backdrop of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's call to parents not to send their wards to schools and colleges. The education system in the valley had become a collateral damage in the ongoing unrest.
The Army on Monday rubbished allegations levelled by hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani that the force was trying to hush up the alleged rape of a woman by two men in uniform in south Kashmir last week.
LJP supremo Ramvilas Paswan on Thursday said he favoured autonomy for Kashmir and withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the region.
Curfew remained in force in Kashmir Valley for the 11th day on Wednesday even as the death toll in the ongoing agitation rose to 104 after a youth succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Srinagar.
Rejecting Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's offer of talks, pro-Pakistani hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Wednesday said that the solution to the Kashmir issue lies in tripartite talks, aimed at giving the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Commenting on the statement by Chidambaram that the Centre is ready for talks with all shades of political opinion in the state, the hardline separatist leader said, "There is nothing new."
Kashmiris thronged the markets on Sunday to shop for the festival of Eid, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramazan at the end of this week. Today was the last day of normalcy in the valley, as separatist leaders have called for a three-day shutdown from Monday. Hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who draws up the protest calendars, has called for a 'Quit Kashmir Campaign'.
In its third summons, issued last week, the NIA promised him security.
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.
Questioning the silence of separatists over the killing of a civilian in stone-pelting, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday accused them of putting the lives of innocent people at risk by encouraging such protests."Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had a given a call for Friday protests and is encouraging stone pelting, and his followers are responsible for the death of the innocent person and they were responsible for the death of the 10-day-old boy in Baramulla," he said.
One person was killed in Srinagar on Friday when the vehicle he was traveling in was targeted by a stone-pelting mob, which was protesting against the state government's decision to put senior separatist leaders Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani under house arrest."A stone hit Sheikh on the head. He was rushed to Soura medical institute, where he succumbed to the injury," the officer said.
The Hurriyat faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, supported by the Kashmir high court bar association, the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, traders and several other groups, gave the strike call.
After the meeting with the Pak PM, separatist leaders admitted that differences persisted.
Curfew was relaxed for three hours in parts of north Kashmir's Sopore town, 55 km from Srinagar, on Friday morning, a police spokesman said.
Today, you give away Kashmir, tomorrow you will have to give away Hyderabad and then Coimbatore and then Moradabad and so on.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday evening released chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik and chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.They were arrested ahead of their march to Lal Chowk last month. Geelani was taken to a hospital in Srinagar on Monday evening, after he complained of sickness in police custody.
The Hartal was in protest against the article published in a Denmark daily "Jyllands Posten" against Prophet Mohammad.
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.
"If the separatists come together on one platform, it will be easy for Pakistan to negotiate with India on Kashmir," sources quoted Kasuri.
Shops, business establishments and educational institutes remained closed due to the strike and most public vehicles were off the road. Geelani on Wednesday called for complete shutdown in protest against the President's visit claiming that there was "no justification" for her visit as "human rights violations by security forces were going on unabated in the state."
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 Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said organisations that missed the first roundtable, will be persuaded to attend the May round.
Chairmen of both factions of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq addressed the gathering at Eidgah while chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Mohammad Yaseen Malik addressed the gathering at the TRC.
A photo of Junaid Ashraf holding an AK 47 assault rifle and wearing an armour vest went viral on social media on Saturday.
In April, Bhat was detained under the Public Safety Act for allegedly hoisting Pakistani flags and chanting anti-national slogans at a rally in uptown Hyderpora area.
However, the APC failed to make any headway in his proposed formation of working groups as some political parties opposed the move.
The Hizbul Mujahideen chief said he could not back their peace moves or any future Kashmir solution unless hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was taken on board, local media reported.
The strike called by the senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was supported by underground groups and the National Conference.
The meeting is seen as a rebuff to Jamaat leader and chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat Conference faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has been asking Pakistan to stay away from the Hurriyat's moderate leadership.
They will be here on an invitation of SAFMA's Indian Chapter.
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.
Both the Houses were thrown into pandemonium soon after swearing-in of new members and obituary references.
Akbar said around 30 members belonging to various constituents of the Geelani's faction have been invited by the Pakistan High Commission. They include Geelani, Ashraf Sehrai, Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan.
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