Intra-Kashmir conference starts with a whimper

The much hyped two-day 'Heart to Heart' intra-Kashmir conference started with a whimper in winter capital Jammu though its organisers had campaigned vigorously to make it a high profile event.

Almost all the high profile invitees preferred to stay away from the conference organised jointly by the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party headed by Prof  Bhim Singh and Jammu university.

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The two-day conference had an impressive attendance list that included the present Prime Minister of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Sikandar Hayat Khan, octogenarian leader Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, former Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chowdhary besides Mehbooba Mufti the president of the state's ruling People's Democratic Party and also Omar Abdullah, the head of the National Conference which is the main opposition party in the legislative assembly in Srinagar.

All these leaders have finally declined to participate in the meet where purportedly the participants were supposed to engage in brainstorming sessions to isolate possible solutions to the vexed Kashmir dispute.

Leaders of both factions of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference who had been also invited chose to stay away too.

Only eight lesser prominent participants from POK showed up even as the organisers were desperately trying to retain the hype they had created about the conference.

"The idea behind holding the conference is to take the peace process forward. The leadership of both sides of Kashmir have realised that bullets and atrocities are not the solution to the Kashmir issue," JKNPP chief Bhim Singh told reporters.

Ghulam Mohammad Shah, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had mooted the idea of holding an intra-Kashmir conference in summer capital Srinagar in 2003, but Shah's proposal was rejected as authorities then refused to permit such an event in the strife torn valley.