Hope in
Kashmir as interlocutors begin mission
Thursday, October 21, 2010 10:43:34 PM, IANS
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Srinagar:
Widely condemned when their names were first made public, the
three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir have begun to raise hopes
in the Kashmir Valley by breaking loose from official protocol.
The fact that the team has been talking so frankly about the
Kashmir dispute appears to signal their seriousness to crack the
63-year-old ice on Jammu and Kashmir, many here feel.
The interlocutors - Dilip Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari
- arrived here Saturday. They have been interacting with people,
visiting jails, calling on politicians and have also prayed for
success of their mission at the holy Muslim shrine of Hazratbal.
Journalist Padgaonkar, who has been doing most of the talking for
the trio, has already raised the pitch for a political discourse
by referring to Kashmir as "a dispute" and not using the usual
guarded vocabulary of "issue" or "problem".
"This is not only a departure from the usual references made by
the central government and national level politicians but also
marks a step forward to somewhere meet the hardline separatist
leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, midway," Riyaz Masroor, a senior
journalist, told IANS.
Masroor said Padgaonkar's assertion that Pakistan had to be on
board for a permanent solution indicated that the interlocutors
had accepted the "international dimension" of the problem.
Geelani has put forth five points for a dialogue process in Jammu
and Kashmir to begin, and his first and foremost assertion has
been that India should accept Kashmir as an international dispute.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram said there were "no red lines" to the
interlocutors' mission.
"It is time to finally accept the fact that Kashmir is a dispute
that must be resolved without losing further time," said Professor
Muzaffar Ahmad, a college teacher.
"If this mission of interlocutors fails, then the hope of peace in
Kashmir could be lost forever," he said.
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