However, the government's response in the event of the Hurriyat pulling out of the talks was not clear.
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.
Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq was detained along with hundreds of his supporters for staging a protest in Srinagar, coinciding with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Jammu and Kashmir. The rally was, however, intercepted by the police at Munawarabad area resulting in clashes. The police had to use tear gas and resort to repeated baton charges to disperse the protest rally.
"Hurriyat has nothing to do with this meaningless exercise and will ask the people to stay away from it as well," Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the separatist amalgam's moderate faction, said after the Election Commission announced the seven-phased poll schedule for the border state.
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.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday announced the resumption of protests by calling a general strike on Saturday.The APHC co-ordination committee decided to call the strike after holding a meeting in Srinagar today afternoon to decide its future course of action."The coordination committee has appealed to the people to hold peaceful protests after Friday prayers and observe a complete strike on Saturday," a spokesman of the committee said.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman of the hardline faction of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, on Tuesday demanded the immediate withdrawal of security forces from the Kashmir Valley. Addressing a mammoth gathering of over 1,00,000 people at Srinagar's Tourists Reception Centre Grounds along with fellow leaders Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Shabbir Shah and Yasin Malik, Geelani laid down its immediate demand: The withdrawal of security forces.
Two persons were killed when policemen fired on protestors in Qamarwari and Sangrama areas of Kashmir valley on Monday, according to official sources.
It also asked the people of the state to observe January 26 as a 'black day'.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of All-Party Hurriyat Conference, has claimed that on July 13, the country will witness one of the biggest peaceful protests in their struggle for resolution of problem of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Union minister, however, indicated the dates for the talks would be set after a discussion with the Hurriyat leaders.
Speaking to rediff.com from his residence in Srinagar, Farooq said that the issue would be debated on next Friday during the Hurriyat meeting in the Valley headquarters to take a view on the developments that have taken place since Sunday afternoon.
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.
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.
Militants shot at and killed a shopkeeper in north Kashmir apple rich Sopore town late Friday evening.
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.
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.
Former All Party Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Gani Bhatt has welcomed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's viewpoint that the Kashmir issue must be looked at from a fresh angle that may lead to finding an amicable solution to the problem.
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.
Shabir Shah, senior separatist leader and chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party, on Monday laid down some conditions before the DFP joins a front representing all the moderate separatist parties in Kashmir. Shah was responding to the call for unity by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference. Farooq had asked all separatist parties to unite under the aegis of a common banner.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who was scheduled to visit the United States next week, might not be able to do so as his travel documents are not in order. "My passport has expired and I am awaiting the renewal of the travel documents so that I can travel abroad," Mirwaiz told rediff.com from his residence in Srinagar on Thursday night."I am confident that some positive developments would take place during their meeting," he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday arrested Masarat Alam Bhat, the spokesman of the joint co-ordination committee of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. Bhat had been evading the police since the past fortnight.Reportedly acting on a tip-off, the police arrested Alam from near Lal Chowk today evening.The police had raided several places in the last 15 days, in an attempt to arrest the second rung of separatist leaders, who played a key role in organising the protests.
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.'
While Mirwaiz Farooq was assassinated inside his Nageen residence in capital city this day in 1990, Abdul Gani Lone, the founder of Peoples Conference (PC) fell to assassin's bullets the same day in 2002.
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