J&K separatists say won’t parley with govt interlocutor

SRINAGAR: Kashmiri separatist leaders on Tuesday ruled out any talks with the government’s interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, calling his appointment “a new tactic by New Delhi after it failed in its muscular approach in the troubled state”.

A joint statement by Hurriyat factions chairmen Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF chief Yasin Malik said they won’t engage in parleys with former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma.

The separatist statement issued under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership, a newly formed loose conglomerate of factionalised separatist groups in the Kashmir valley, said it was useless to participate in any dialogue process that didn’t recognise Kashmir “is a dispute that has to be resolved”.

“The appointment of Sharma by the government as its interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir is nothing more than a tactic to buy time adopted under international pressures and regional compulsions and due to the abysmal failure of the state policy of military repression upon the people of Kashmir,” the statement said.

It added: “In principle, we have always advocated and supported sincere and productive dialogue as a means to resolve the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir.”

THE APPOINTMENT OF DINESHWAR SHARMA BY GOVT AS INTERLOCUTOR FOR J&K IS NOTHING MORE THAN A TACTIC TO BUY TIME, THEY SAY