NEW DELHI, March 16: Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Tuesday announced he would hold a second round of talks with moderate Kashmiri leaders on March 27 in the Indian capital.
Mr Advani made his announcement at a media conference in the western state of Maharashtra, carried live by television news channels. However, Kashmiri leaders who took part in a first round of talks in January said they had yet to agree to attend the next session.
"We will decide on the second round of talks with New Delhi once we get the invitation," Maulana Abbas Ansari, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), told reporters in Srinagar.
Mr Ansari led a team of moderate Hurriyat leaders on Jan 22 into the first talks ever between the movement and an Indian government official of the stature of Mr Advani.
In those talks, both sides agreed that all forms of violence in occupied Kashmir must end, with Mr Advani promising a "rapid" review of Hurriyat's long-standing demand for the release of political prisoners in the held state.
Since the New Delhi talks, Hurriyat leaders have said rights abuses by Indian soldiers in held Kashmir were forcing them to do a rethink about continuing the process, which is aimed at resolving the future of Kashmir.
Mr Ansari gave India a deadline on Feb 25 to rein in troops and end repression, saying the alliance would pull out of the talks if demands were not met.
His threat to break off the already fragile peace process followed the killing early last month of five civilians used as human shields by the Indian army during a gunfight with militants.
"We will wait until the end of February to see whether there is any change in the human rights situation in Kashmir. If we don't find any change we will pull out of talks with New Delhi," Mr Ansari had said.
On Tuesday, he stressed he had issued the threat in his personal capacity and that Hurriyat was a conglomerate "where collective decisions matter". The People's Political Front of Fazal Haque Qureshi, one of the five leaders who attended the first round of talks, has already pulled out of future meetings over the rights issue.
Hurriyat is split between hardliners, led by Syed Ali Geelani who have shunned talks with New Delhi, and Mr Ansari's moderate wing. -AFP
