Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 5: In a major breakthrough, Centre’s Interlocutor to Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma met former Hurriyat Conference chairman Abdul Gani Bhat during his visit to Kashmir last week.
Sources said that during his first visit to Kashmir at least six middle rung separatist leaders met Sharma in a hospital.
Sharma drove to the residence-cum-office of Abdul Gani Bhat in Wazir Bagh Srinagar on November 27 at around 10.30 pm in Srinagar where another Hurriyat leader was present during the meeting, which went on for around an hour. Bhat shared his view point on Jammu and Kashmir and resolution of the issue.
The meeting assumed significance as the joint Hurriyat leadership led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik stayed away from the dialogue initiative, as they said that exercise was a ‘waste of time’, and questioned sincerity of New Delhi.
Bhat is part of Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz, however, since the trio joined hands in 2016, most of the constituents of Mirwiaz led Hurriyat including Bhat’s Muslim Conference, have stayed away from its public functions or core group meetings.
Bhat said his party – the Muslim Conference – is principally in favour of dialogue and “open to meet anybody who seeks a dialogue on Kashmir, including Sharma.
The Hurriyat leader told reporters that his doors are open for dialogue. “Why shouldn’t we talk to people? We did it with Yashwant Sinha? We do it sometimes with members of a delegation. Why not with some other people who come to see us? We feel that till the time Pakistan is not involved, there will be no breakthrough,” he told reporters.
However, Bhat is not the only separatist leader who met Sharma. Sources said that six middle rung Hurriyat leaders met Sharma at a private hospital during his first visit to Kashmir after he was appointed as Interlocutor.
Sources said that the meeting was organized by a PDP leader and son of one of the executive member of Hurriyat Conference was among the leaders who met Sharma. However, there was no headway in the meeting that was held in the hospital and they shared their view point with the Interlocutor.
The Government, however, was desperately trying to expand the scope of the exercise and make it more credible by including the Hurriyat leaders, influential businessmen and civil society members, who till now have refrained from participating openly.
However, some of the businessmen and owners of the newspapers and media persons met Sharma secretly during his first visit to Kashmir.
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