NEW DELHI, Oct 9: India offered on Wednesday to hold talks with Kashmiri leaders, including those who stayed away from the recent elections, on granting greater autonomy to the held state.

New Delhi also said it was ready to enter into negotiations with Mujahideen if they laid down their arms.

Speaking a day after four rounds of assembly voting ended in occupied Kashmir, Advani said India had at times resolved conflicts in its troubled northeast by talking to rebels.

“It is the declared policy of the government to hold talks with militant organizations, including the banned outfits, if they shun violence and come to the negotiation table,” Advani told reporters after dedicating a school in the northern hill resort of Shimla.

Despite sporadic violence during the election in the held state, India has claimed a 46 percent turnout.

“India has won these elections and democracy has triumphed,” Advani said.

Advani said Pakistan made the election “a big challenge”, but that the polls “improved India’s position in the world”.

The hawkish Advani, who is also home minister, said Pakistan seemed to be changing its public posture over Kashmir.

“There was a major change in the language of the Pakistani leaders who not so long ago were ready to defend the slaughter of women and children by militants in the name of freedom.

“But they have been cautious of late about militant attacks in Akshardham and Kaluchak, saying they had no hand in it and these were regrettable incidents,” Advani said.

He was referring to a Sept 24 assault on a temple in Gujarat and a July 14 attack on an Indian army camp in held Kashmir, both of which India blamed on rebels linked to Pakistan.

Another minister said Indian forces would continue aggressively bearing down on militants fighting Indian rule, but the grievances of the Kashmiri people would be addressed.

“We will have a dialogue with the representative government in (occupied) Jammu and Kashmir, and even those who missed the bus — the separatists (anti-India groups) who did not take part in the elections,” said junior home minister I.D. Swami.

“We have an open mind on autonomy, devolution of powers. We are ready to consider proposals as long as they are in the interests of the people,” he said.

A semi-official Indian team, headed by a former minister, held talks with Hurriyat leaders in August that were put on hold during the rolling election that wound up on Tuesday.

Swami said the Kashmiri committee, headed by former law minister Ram Jethmalani and made up of academics and journalists, could pick up the thread now that elections were out of the way.—Reuters