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Intermediaries hope India and Pak will sit across the table

George Iype in New Delhi

Seven days after the unilateral ceasefire declared by the government, there is a flurry of activity in New Delhi as a host of unofficial intermediaries and separatist leaders have plunged into talks on Kashmir.

Leaders of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, the umbrella group of Kashmir-based parties, headed by its chairman Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, have begun a series of informal meetings with political leaders and officials in New Delhi.

Professor Bhat, along with Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, former chief of the APHC and chief of the Awami Action Committee, and Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front are also expected to meet Pakistani high commission officials on Tuesday.

"Now that Pakistan has responded to India's ceasefire initiative, we are here to ensure a future course of negotiations and dialogue between the two countries. We hope both the governments will sit across the peace table soon after Ramzan," the Mirwaiz told rediff.com.

He said "informal discussions" have already started between intermediaries, officials and political leaders of both India and Pakistan to create the right mood among the governments towards an effective official dialogue.

"We want the New Year to begin differently for both India and Pakistan," the Mirwaiz added.

Hurriyat leaders claimed that their mission would gain momentum once Abdul Ghani Lone, another APHC leader, lands in New Delhi later this week. Lone is in Pakistan, after the recent marriage of his son to Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Amanullah Khan's daughter.

The Hurriyat leaders are camping in the capital to "prepare the stage" for a three-way dialogue -- involving India, Pakistan and the Hurriyat Conference -- to end the violence and find a peaceful solution to the Kashmir problem.

But officials in the ministry of external affairs have emphatically rejected any mention of three-way talks. "Such a proposition at this juncture is too early and premature. Let us see how the ceasefire goes in the next three weeks," an MEA official pointed out.

The thinking in the Vajpayee government is that leaders of India and Pakistan could enter into a crucial round of political dialogue if the ceasfire holds well.

Meanwhile, the government hopes that the ceasefire will also change the mindset of ordinary Kashmiris. The Vajpayee government is hopeful that the absence of any search and cordon operations in the Valley will considerably lift the morale of the average Kashmiri. "The ground situation has to improve for any further dialogue with Pakistan. Our reports say violence has been on the decline ever since the ceasefire started seven days back," a senior official in the Union home ministry told rediff.com .

According to home ministry sources, which is meticulously monitoring violent incidents in Kashmir since the ceasefire took effect, the graph of largescale disturbances and the intensity of Pakistani fire along the 720-kilometre long Line of Control have come down considerably.

Ministry records say the number of killed in the Kashmir conflict has been one of the highest in the last 11 months. According to official figures, 168 people have been killed in the last 11 months, while the figure stood at 56 in 1999, 117 in 1998, 43 in 1997 and 50 in 1996.

The full coverage of the Kashmir ceasefire

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