PM to meet J&K parties on Tuesday

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet an all-party delegation from Jammu and Kashmir led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tomorrow to discuss the current situation in the Valley and steps to restore complete normalcy.

The meeting will, however, not have representatives from the main opposition party People's Democratic Party which has already announced its decision to skip the meeting. The BJP is also likely to stay away.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister is expected to seek views of the political parties on ways to restore peace in Kashmir which has been witnessing a cycle of violence following the controversy over killing of three youths allegedly in a fake encounter in Machil in north Kashmir.

Union Minister Farooq Abdullah, Ali Mohammed Sagar and Abdul Rahim Rather will represent the ruling National Conference while Saif-ud-din Soz will be leading the Congress delegation.

Others invited for the meeting were Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Panthers Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Democratic Party Nationalist (group of independent MLAs).

Omar had called an all-party meeting on July 12 but the PDP had refused to attend those parleys also. Its chief Mehbooba Mufti had then said the meeting should instead be called by the prime minister.

The National Conference criticised the PDP for boycotting the meeting saying, "Actually, they are never interested in the welfare of people."

The JK Panthers Party, which had boycotted the meeting in Kashmir, has agreed to participate in tomorrow's meet.

In a two-pronged strategy to defuse the current crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, the meeting held on July 12 had called for an independent inquiry into the death of civilians and also urged the prime minister to give fillip to "internal and external dialogue".

The meeting had appealed to all political parties to help in restoration of peace and normalcy in the state which has been rocked by disturbances besides urging the Centre to strengthen the ongoing peace process through internal and external dialogue.

The leaders had also criticised PDP for not attending the meeting. CPI state president A R Takroo had expressed regret that while on the one hand, PDP was trying to hijack the agenda of Hurriyat Conference, on the other it was trying to convince the Centre and the prime minister that it is a nationalist party.