The Centre's newly appointed interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, former home secretary N N Vohra, would be holding talks with the elected representatives and other groups in Jammu and Kashmir from the next month, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said on Friday.
Asked with whom Vohra would hold talks and whether the list would include the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Advani said, "To begin with, the parleys should be held with the elected representatives. We don't have any objections to whomever he wants to talk to.
"There are the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions besides the political parties with whom the talks should be held," he added.
The deputy prime minister further said the Centre was willing to hold talks with 'any group, which will lay down arms and shun the path of violence'.
Vohra had a 30-minute long meeting with Advani during which the latter told him about the points of reference for holding talks with political parties and other groups in the state.
After the meeting, Vohra met Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission K C Pant and Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley on their efforts in bringing about peace in the state.
A seasoned bureaucrat, Vohra replaces Pant in the task of carrying out the dialogue, which was promised by the Centre before the assembly elections in the state.
The government has all along favoured a dialogue as the only answer to problems in Jammu and Kashmir. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made the promise in his Independence Day speech.
Vohra's name was cleared after the government considered three names including Pant and A S Dulat, former Research and Analysis Wing chief and officer on special duty in the prime minister's Office.
Vohra, who had also served as defence secretary and as principal secretary to then prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral, had headed a committee that probed the politician-criminal nexus in 1995.
He was chairman of the Commitee on Internal Security, created after the report of the Subrahmanium Committee on the circumstances that led to the Kargil conflict.