December 10, 2001	Monday	Ramazan 24, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NEW DELHI, Dec 9: India’s federal government has set up a special group to hold peace talks with Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Sunday.

The group will be headed by K.C. Pant, deputy chairman of India’s economic and social policy think-tank Planning Commission and India’s previous pointman in Kashmir. He will be joined by top-level government officials.

PTI said the Hurriyat, which comprises nearly two dozen separate Kashmiri political groups, had contacted Indian government intermediaries with a request to revive talks. The previous round of discussions stalled after senior Hurriyat leaders were not given visas by the Indian government to visit Pakistan, where they wanted to consult with other Kashmiri leaders and groups.

Officials are anticipating a change in the Kashmir situation following the ouster of Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where many militant groups backing the Kashmir insurgency were believed to have their bases.

Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani recently said the developments in Afghanistan could either result in a massive pouring of Taliban refugees into Indian Kashmir or a weakening of the militants’ capacity for violence due to destruction of the bases.

INVESTIGATION ORDERED: Authorities in Kashmir on Sunday ordered a probe into the shooting incident that killed nine people.

Six civilians, one soldier and two guerillas were killed on Saturday after the Indian army opened fire in Baramulla to retaliate for an ambush by mujahideen, witnesses said. Seven soldiers and 25 other people were wounded.

“The district administration has decided to probe the incident in Baramulla in which at least six civilians were killed and dozens were injured,” an official spokesman said.

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has strongly condemned the shooting incident and has appealed to international human rights groups to take note of the alleged human rights violation by Indian security forces.—AFP/Reuters