Srinagar: Asserting that people of the valley don’t want peace in isolation, but alongwith dialogue, former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said the centre should start meaningful talks to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, he said this time the delegation is not meeting leaders of Hurriyat Conference (HC).
“We have met people from different walks of life during the last three days. There is still space for peace, but not in isolation. The people of the valley want peace alongwith meaningful dialogue to resolve Kashmir issue,” Mr Sinha said here Saturday.
He said there is also people in the country who also wanted that the issue should be resolved.
Mr Sinha, who heads a Delhi-based Concerned Citizens Group (CCG), said they will try to persuade the Centre to initiate dialogue process as promised in the Agency of Alliance (AoA) by the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Meanwhile, lauding the Prime Minister for his comment that neither bullets nor brickbats will solve the Kashmir issue, he said the statement made during the Independence Day speech from Red Fort shows the commitment of Narendra Modi to resolve the issue.
About not meeting with Hurriyat Conference leaders, Mr Sinha said the delegation has met the separatists during their previous visits and know their ideology. “We have already met separatists previously and we know what they want. So there was no point in meeting them. If we meet them we are dubbed as traitors and if we don’t, people say why didn’t you meet them…,” he said.
Mr Sinha had last Friday said that the Centre should immediately clear it’s stand on Article 35-A of the Constitution, which grants special status to the residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
The delegation, comprising of Mr Sinha, Kapil Kak, a former Air vice-marshal, Bharat Bhushan, senior Journalist, and Sushobha Barve, head of Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, during their three day stay here met former chief ministers and opposition National Conference (NC) president and working president Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, besides Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Governor N N Vohra.
They also met members of civil society, mainstream leaders of other political parties.
This is their third visit to the valley since 2016 unrest that left more than 100 civilians’ dead and thousands of others wounded in violence. The unruly clashes were triggered by the death of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Burhan Wani on July 8 last year.
