In a significant move, separatists have decided to hold talks with Kashmiri Pandit migrants to discuss their return to the Valley.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has demanded the resignations of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father, union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah.
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.
Breaking the ice, the Centre's interlocutors on Kashmir talked to Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq over the phone discussing the situation in the state and seeking time for a meeting.
'Why was he killed? What was his fault? Whoever did this is so inhuman.'
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, condemned the collective punishment being inflicted upon the entire population of valley for pursuing their just cause for the resolution of Kashmir issue.
Musharraf assured the delegation that any resolution of the Kashmir issue will be finalised only after ascertaining the wishes of the the Kashmiri people. \n
The body of Sehrai, 77, was handed over to his family on Wednesday evening and taken in a police escort to Kupwara in north Kashmir, at least 350 km from Jammu, where he would be buried at his ancestral graveyard in accordance with the COVID-19 guidelines.
Hurriyat's moderate faction led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Saturday that it was ready for talks with the Centre for resolution of Kashmir issue, but that the back channels had "fallen silent" for the past two months.
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.
Lashing out at the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party for opposing the proposed meeting of separatist leaders with the Pakistan high commissioner, both moderate and hardline factions of the Hurriyat Conference on Monday said their reaction was unwarranted and demonstrated political immaturity.
Violence once again erupted in the Kashmir Valley when a group of people began to wave Pakistan and terror group Lashkar-e-Tayiba flags.
Rashid was arrested on August 9 last year, since he was unable to give any convincing answers to the questions, the NIA said.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti warned that there could be a backlash if the force loses patience.
Authorities imposed curfew-like-restrictions in old city areas of Srinagar to foil a rally by the separatist Awami Action Committee headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday.
'Bukhari's case falls into that rare category where the precise determination of the killer as well as the motive can only be guessed vaguely, not determined with certainty,' says Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished doyen of the Kashmiri media.
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.
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.
The Centre is acting tough with Kashmir's separatist leaders by taking on their foreigner wives, refusing them to stay with their husbands in Jammu and Kashmir.
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.
India and Pakistan should move from confrontation to cooperation, Pakistan's High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Tuesday said while adding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is keen to normalise bilateral relations.
The blast at the heavily-guarded CRPF camp at Nowpora came even as authorities mounted a security bandobast across the state, especially in Srinagar where the prime minister is scheduled to address a public rally -- his second in Kashmir.
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.
"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.
Protests rocked parts of Kashmir Valley including Srinagar on Saturday where Pakistan and Islamic State flags were yet again displayed by masked youths after Eid prayers.
Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, the chief spokesman of the separatist conglomerate, said APHC's 'self governance was not something of a concession like autonomy.'
India and Pakistan look to take the peace process to the next level.
Indirectly blaming the militant groups for the attack, Khan said it seems to be the work of the forces opposed to the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan.
Chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq Friday claimed that the initiative of the separatist amalgam for "trilateral talks" with India and Pakistan has been received well in Islamabad.
What used to be confined to homes as a winter garment has become a political and cultural symbol, with most leaders and many citizens donning the long cloak at offices and their places of work, observes Athar Parvaiz.
He said no reduction of forces within the state, could become 'an impediment in the peace process.'
Squashing erstwhile 'separatists', marginalising the 'mainstream', and squeezing funding channels have all evidently had an impact -- at least for the moment, notes David Devadas after a visit to Srinagar.
The strike affected attendance in government offices and banks, the officials said.
Seven people including Altaf Ahmed Shah, the son-in-law of hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, were arrested on Monday by the National Investigation Agency in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley, officials said.
Authorities imposed restrictions in certain areas of Srinagar on Saturday to scuttle a protest march called by separatists to coincide with Martyr's Day
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