NEWS

Hurriyat awaits Centre's call

By Onkar Singh in New Delhi
January 05, 2004 22:37 IST

A week after Maulvi Abbas Ansari told rediff.com that All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders were ready to hold talks with Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, the amalgam is still waiting for an invitation from the Centre.

On Monday, government interlocutor N N Vohra met Advani in New Delhi and later told journalists that it was for the Hurriyat to tell the government when they want to come to the capital.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had appointed Advani to hold talks with the Hurriyat after they refused to hold talks with Vohra.

Ansari told rediff.com from Srinagar that the Hurriyat could hold talks only when it knew the agenda.

"We must know what we are doing to discuss in New Delhi. We are ready for talks but there should be something to talk about. We are not going to go to Delhi to have a cup of tea or coffee with Advaniji," he said.

He also made it clear that once the Hurriyat received an invitation it would hold a meeting of its factions to decide the course of action.

He welcomed the development at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit.

"We all want peace. Prime Minister Vajpayee held talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and then he met President Pervez Musharraf. They certainly were not asking about each other's health only. They must have talked something on Kashmir," the Hurriyat chief said.

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

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