SYED ALI SAFVI
SRINAGAR, Oct 24: The three-member panel of interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir today visited Srinagar’s central jail and met the incarcerated youth, most of them arrested for stone pelting, in the jail. However, senior Hurriyat Conference (G) leader, Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, who is languishing behind bars, refused to meet the panel.
The panel comprising of veteran journalist, Dilip Padgaonkar, academician Professor Radha Kumar and Information Commissioner of Central Information Commission, MM Ansari arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit aimed at holding sustained dialogue with all sections of the society.
According to reports, the imprisoned separatist leaders suggested the panel to talk to hold talks with United Jehad Council (UJC). The panel met several separatist leaders in the Central Jail here including Shabir Ahmad Bukhari, Shakeel Ahmad Sofi, Muzaffar Ahmad Dar, Khurshid Ahmad lone, Shoukat Ahmad Teli and Feroz Ahmad Najar.
The incarcerated leader stressed the need for immediately resolving the Kashmir dispute.
“If government of India is really serious this time around about resolving the Kashmir dispute then it should hold talks with the UJC leadership,” the leaders suggested the panel.
They said the reason for the unrest prevailing in the state for the last over two decades was that New Delhi had failed to address the aspirations of the people of the state.
“Kashmiris were forced to take to lift the gun due to India’s refusal to give right to self determination to the people of J&K,” they said.
The leaders also emphasized the need for engaging Pakistan and Kashmiris in dialogue to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio.
“If you (interlocutors) have been given the open mandate by the government of India then you should talk to militants,” the incarcerated separatist leaders told the panel.
The panel also met various youth prisoners who have been arrested by police for stone pelting during the recent unrest in the valley.
According to reports, a meeting of interlocutors with the J&K governor, NN Vohra, had also been fixed. The interlocutors were likely to meet students, mainstream political party leaders and even separatists “if they are willing to meet”.
The interlocutors would be visiting the state at least once a month to continue the dialogue with the people of the state and they will submit their recommendations after each visit.
Pertinently, senior separatist leaders including chairmen of both factions of Hurriyat Conference and JKLF chairman have called for complete boycott of interlocutors. The mainstream leaders have also expressed dismay over non-inclusion of politician in the panel of interlocutors.
Meanwhile, lashing out at BJP, head of the interlocutors’ panel, Dilip Padgaonkar, said that BJP’s criticism over his comments on Pakistan was “uncalled for”.
“We are responsible people. We know what we are doing. We stand by what we spoke,” Padgaonkar told a national TV channel.
BJP spokesperson, Nirmala Sitharaman, had slammed Padgaonkar for his comment that Pakistan had to be involved for a permanent solution of the Kashmir issue. Sitharaman had asked the PMO to clarify “if this was part of the brief to the team”.
Padgaonkar said that the interlocutors have not been briefed by the government of India.
"What I have said with regard to Pakistan is the obvious. I have not said anything that has not been said before. I have not exceeded my brief as we did not get any brief. The Home Minister has said there are no red lines or boundaries. We know what we are doing," Pandgaonkar told a news agency.
“We have been meeting all sections, including militants and youths, here since yesterday. We plan to do the same for a few more days and then move to Jammu to get the Jammu view,” Padgaonkar said.
The interlocutors today also met senior journalist and bureau chief The Hindu, Shujaat Bukhari and printer, publisher and owner Greater Kashmir, Fayaz Kalloo, and discussed the current unrest in the valley and the possible ways and means to break over six-decade-old deadlock over the Kashmir imbroglio.
They also met a delegation of Akhil Bhartiya Gujjar Mahasabha J&K (ABGM) led by its president, Eshfaq-ur-Rehman Poswal and Gujjars and Bakerwals Scheduled Tribe community, led by secretary Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, Dr. Javaid Rahi.
The delegation apprised the panel of interlocutors about the current situation in Kashmir and suggested the panel not to pay heed to slogans like Autonomy and Self Rule.
“Gujjar and Bakarwal had always been and will continue to be a part of India,” they said.
However, they expressed dismay over the cold shouldered response by the state and central leadership.
“We suffered a great deal during the militancy, but we never endorsed secession,” they said.
The president of ABGM also submitted a memorandum to the newly appointed interlocutors “featuring the communities’ view point and suggestions about the future of the state.”
Poswal urged the interlocutors to visit the Gujjar and Bakerwal inhabited areas in person and see for themselves the “pitiable living conditions of the communities”.
Meanwhile, demanding a separate Pir Panchal region and a Tribal Hill Council in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujjars and Bakerwals Scheduled Tribe community today urged the three-member panel of interlocutors for strong recommendations for an irreversible provision along with constitutional guaranties to reserve categories while deciding the Kashmir issue in their report to be submitted to Prime Minister of India.
In a meeting with the interlocutors, the members of Gujjar Bakerwal community today pressed hard for grant of social, cultural, economic and political empowerment of the community living in far-flung areas of the state.
According to a statement, a delegation of intellectual of tribal Gujjar Bakerwal community, led by secretary Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, Dr. Javaid Rahi, met the panel at Government Guest house and told them that “suppressed Gujjars and Bakerwals deserve special attention of the state and union governments”. He said although Gujjars constitute 20 percent population of the state, but their presence was negligible in the state affairs.
The delegation asked the panel that keeping in view the different identity, ideology and culture the Gujjars were demanding a separate area/ region with tribal council for them within the state on the patron Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) “so that their tribal uniqueness could be protected and preserved”. The delegation pressed the team for special recommendation in this regard.
The delegation also apprised the team about other problems being faced by the tribal Gujjars of the state. A six-page memorandum was also submitted to the team seeking their help through recommendations in implementation and strengthening of schedule tribe status in the state by according them the “much awaited political reservation”.
The other demands, which were presented before the team for recommendation to relevant quarters included providing of shelters and land to the nomad Gujjars who were landless and homeless since 1947. The deputation also demanded the inclusion of Gojri language in the eight schedule of Indian constitution besides strengthening of Gojri wing of J&K State Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
The delegation also demanded a special census of lakhs of nomadic and shelter-less Gujjars and Bakerwals of the state.
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