Centre yet to decide on talks

New Delhi, August 13 : A day after deciding that ‘negotiations’ with agitating parties in Jammu and Kashmir was the only way to break the stalemate over Amarnath issue, the Centre was still working on finalising the modalities for the negotiation process.

At the meeting of all-party delegation that visited Jammu and Kashmir over the weekend, the members had agreed that it was extremely important for the Government to bring both the agitating sides on the negotiating table rather than just hear their grievances as the delegation had done during its visit to the state.

Various suggestions were put forward at Tuesday’s meeting to start such a negotiation process, sources said.

The points under consideration are whether the negotiations should be handled by a committee created by the Central Government or by the four-member committee that has already been appointed by Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra.

Another option was to open back-channel negotiations by leaders across parties with whom agitating sides feel comfortable talking to. So while leaders from the Valley could be assigned to talk to agitating factions in Kashmir, national parties with significant presence in Jammu could be asked to engage the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti.

In fact, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah had volunteered himself to try approaching moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, if the Centre so desired, the sources said.

The Centre was still not sure whether to involve the various Hurriyat factions in the negotiating process. However, there was a unanimous feeling that any such process should not allow the Hurriyat to gain an upper hand in the Valley vis-à-vis the mainstream political parties in Kashmir.