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NEW DELHI, Aug 29: Leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, Shabir Shah, said on Thursday he was ready to hold talks with the Indian government but he ruled out taking part in state assembly elections starting next month.
Shabir Shah told Reuters that elections in occupied Kashmir were meaningless until dialogue with the Indian government was held.
“We are ready for talks, the government of India must clear its stand,” Shah said in New Delhi where he will hold talks with a semi-official group trying to bring peace to the region.
“Sometimes they say they will talk, then they say no talks. They should have a policy, I don’t see any.”
New Delhi says it is willing to talk to elected representatives of the state assembly about greater autonomy for the troubled region.
But Shah said there was no question of taking part in the state elections.
“Elections have been held so many times in the past, they are meaningless. We don’t have anything to do with them even from a distance,” he said.
Leaders of the government-backed Kashmir Committee group, set up recently to talk with Kashmiri leaders, said the meeting with Shah scheduled for Thursday night was aimed at ending violence and getting talks going.
“The ice has been broken, at least an Indian citizens’ group is talking to the Kashmiris,” said Ashok Bhan, convener of the group headed by former federal minister Ram Jethmalani.
“Our effort is to seek a resolve from all these leaders to abjure violence and work towards restoration of dialogue,” said Bhan. “It is for the government to pick up the thread whenever, we will continue our efforts.”
Representatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference are also due in the Indian capital next week for talks with the committee which is made up of academics and journalists.
The Hurriyat has also opposed the elections, saying they are not a substitute for a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people in line with UN resolutions of 1948 and 1949.
ELECTION CARDS: The APHC on Thursday charged Indian troops with forcing Kashmiris to line up for election identification papers, the group said in a statement.
“Not only in villages, even in major pockets of Srinagar, people are being forced to prepare election identity cards by the troops,” the Hurriyat statement said in Srinagar.
“Even under-aged boys and girls are being forced to prepare election cards for themselves,” the statement claimed.
“The height is that even our (Hurriyat) workers are being forced to prepare such cards,” it added.
Kashmir’s chief electoral officer Pramod Jain earlier this month had said that Indian troops were under orders not to interfere with the ongoing electoral process.
However, the Hurriyat statement said the troops were ignoring the orders of the poll watchdog.
“By unleashing the terror of card-making, poll irregularities at the hands of government of India have already begun in Kashmir,” the statement said.
POLL NOTIFICATION: The election commission on Thursday issued notifications for the second leg of voting in the strife-torn Himalayan state.
“The district magistrates of Srinagar, Jammu and Budgam have issued notifications for the holding of polls to the three districts,” Kashmir’s deputy chief electoral officer P.S. Jamwal said.
The three districts are going to the polls on Sept 24 with some 1.9 million eligible voters. —Reuters / AFP
