India offers to cut Kashmir troops: Detention cases to be reviewed: Singh; Trilateral talks picking up: Mirwaiz
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Sept 5: India offered hopes on Monday of a widely sought reduction in its troops in Jammu and Kashmir as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh assured the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) of his personal commitment to alleviate human suffering in the troubled region.
“He is a man of conscience. He has a human heart,” APHC leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said after a landmark meeting between his five-member delegation and the Indian prime minister and his apex team.
To give the talks greater legitimacy in India’s ruling establishment, the APHC delegation has sought meetings with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, possibly on Wednesday and with leaders of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
The prime minister’s spokesman, Dr Sanjaya Baru, speaking after the two-and-a-half hour dinner encounter, said the resumption of talks with the APHC leaders after a gap was itself a major achievement and the meeting was marked by cordiality. “That it will continue in the future is an important thing,” he added.
He said each person on both sides spoke their hearts out at the meeting that was deliberately planned to keep the time flexible “when the prime minister would not be distracted by other engagements.” Dr Singh was assisted by Home Minister Shivraj Patil and National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan as well as other senior aides.
Mirwaiz Umar had led an APHC delegation in the talks with the then Indian Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani 17 months ago, the highest contact until Monday between the two sides.
On Monday, it was probably the first time that a delegation of the Kashmiri resistance was led into the official residence of an Indian prime minister at the highly fortified 7 Race Course Road.
The meeting came barely 10 days before Dr Singh’s scheduled talks in New York with President Gen Pervez Musharraf. A meeting with US President George W. Bush is also slated on the margins of the UN General Assembly’s annual session.
Mirwaiz Umar acknowledged that the talks with Dr Singh had promise. The focus was on India’s assurance that if violence and infiltration levels across the Line of Control came down, New Delhi could consider a reduction in troops in the region. There would be a time-bound review of all detentions.
However, for the APHC, the important issue was the need for apolitical settlement of the Kashmir dispute from where all other solutions would follow. “The PM understands our views and was quite receptive,” the APHC leader said.
“We have decided we will be meeting soon,” he said. “The APHC can propose how a political solution can be found. The Hurriyat wants a peaceful solution to the problem.”
Monday’s agreed mantra thus was that people in Kashmir should feel the change. “Trust is what was lacking between Delhi and Kashmir,” the Mirwaiz observed.
There was mention of a Kashmir Committee to regularise talks between the two sides, the mechanism for which, including back channel diplomacy, had to be worked out. As far as APHC was concerned, said Mirwaiz, a trilateral dialogue involving Pakistan, India and Kashmir was the only way forward.
“The trilateral dialogue is really picking up,” he remarked, adding there was “a sense of communication with the prime minister...It was a heart to heart, a very honest discussion.” An Indian government statement said later that Dr Singh reiterated his commitment to ensuring a life of peace, self-respect and dignity for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“He agreed to review all cases of those held in detention and ensure that violations of human dignity would not be tolerated and government would take all necessary measures to safeguard against human rights violations,” the statement said.
The prime minister agreed to the time-bound review of those held under the Public Safety Act and Prevention of Detention Act.
“The APHC delegation stressed that an honourable and durable solution should be found through dialogue. It was agreed that the only way forward is to ensure that all forms of violence at all levels should come to an end.
NEW DELHI, Sept 5: India offered hopes on Monday of a widely sought reduction in its troops in Jammu and Kashmir as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh assured the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) of his personal commitment to alleviate human suffering in the troubled region.
