Excelsior Correspondent/PTI
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR, Aug 20: The sudden arrest and immediate release of Kashmiri separatist leaders who are to meet Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz here introduced an intriguing element into the scheduled talks he will have with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on terror in next week.
The invitation by the Pakistan High Commission to hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other separatist leaders including Umar Farooq on Sunday to meet Aziz has upset New Delhi but Pakistan has stuck to the line that such meetings were “routine”.
Pakistan Foreign office said in Islamabad that consultations with Hurriyat leaders) were a “routine matter” and a “long standing practice”.
The sudden house arrest of Hurriyat leaders introduced a new element into the talks scenario and prompted speculation about Pakistan reaction. However, a couple of hours later, the restrictions were lifted.
Official sources said the detention of the separatists was a message to Pakistan that there was no third party to discussions between the two countries on the issue of terror. It was also a signal that they could be detained again if need be to prevent them from meeting Aziz.
The Indo-Pak NSA-level talks were on course as of now but there may be a new twist should separatist leaders be prevented from coming to Delhi to meet Aziz. “The ball will then be in Pakistan’s court,” the sources emphasised.
The Pakistani invitation, which is seen as yet another “provocation” by Indian side, comes after persistent ceasefire violations as well as two terror attacks in recent weeks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur which many observers see as Pakistan army’s opposition to any discussions with India.
Though the Indian Government has not made any official comment on the invite to Hurriyat leaders, sources said the situation was being monitored and India will “respond appropriately”. “Let’s see what happens. We are monitoring the situation,” they said.
Asserting that there are some sections in the Pakistan establishment who want to “scuttle” the Indo-Pak talks and are ratcheting up anti-India activities thereby, pushing India to call off NSA-level talks.
“The invitation should be seen as latest provocative move in that direction,” the sources said, and added that “We believe that terror and talks cannot go on together but we are not shy of talks on terror.”
Last year, India had unilaterally called off Foreign Secretary-level talks after the Pakistan High Commissioner here had held “consultations” with the Kashmiri separatist leaders on the eve of the FS-level meeting in Islamabad.
Significantly, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had last week said his country will not “abandon” the Kashmiris’ “legitimate struggle for freedom”, stressing that to have normal and cooperative relationship with India it was necessary to settle the decades-old dispute.
Defending its decision not to call off the India-Pakistan NSA-level talks despite the neighbouring country courting Kashmiri separatist leaders, Government today said that the meet will only focus on the issue of terror and ways to prevent it.
“This meeting is for talks on terror and the need to prevent it,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
He was asked to respond to Pakistan High Commission’s invite to separatist leaders ahead of the National Security Adviser-level talks here on Sunday.
“I would just like to remind that the agenda of the meeting was settled at the Ufa meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. The first was the meeting between NSAs to talk on terror, including the exchange of voice samples of 26/11 (Mumbai terror attacks).
“Therefore, this meeting is for talks on terror and the need to prevent it,” he said.
The Minister said that a structured briefing will come from the Ministry of External Affairs on the issue.
Responding to a series of questions at a briefing on the decisions of the Union Cabinet on the house arrest of Hurriyat leaders, Prasad said he would not make a comment on the “policing exercise” of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir as the State police “is free to take appropriate action”.
Asked whether India was “okay” with the Pakistan NSA seeking a meeting with Kashmiri separatists, the Minister said foreign policy initiatives are not determined via media debates.
The stand of the Government, I have told you very clearly and categorically, is that it is a talk on terror,” he said.
To a question on Rahul Gandhi’s plan to visit Poonch amid ceasefire violations by Pakistan, he said the Congress leader is free to travel anywhere in the country.
In Srinagar, ahead of separatist leaders’ proposed meeting with Pakistan National Security Advisor (NSA), Sartaj Aziz, on August 23, a high drama was witnessed this morning in Srinagar when almost all the separatist leaders were either put under house arrest or detained and later released after over three hours.
Police contingents arrived at the residents of several Hurriyat Conference leaders including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq at Nageen and blocked the main entrances of these leaders and told them that they are under house arrest.
The chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Mohammad Yasin Malik and his associate Shoukat Ahmad Bakhshi were rounded up from their residences and detained. Malik was lodged in Police Station Kothi Bagh, however, he was later released.
Those who were put under house arrest besides Mriwaiz including Moulana Abbas Ansari, Mohammad Ashraf Sahrai, Ayaz Akbar and Mehrajudin. The chairman of hard line faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was already under house arrest.
The residences of several other leaders like Javed Mir, Shahidul Islam and Altaf Shah were raided by police but these leaders were not present in their houses at the time of the raid.
Mirwaiz said that it is unfortunate that the separatist leaders were put under house arrest. “At 8 a.m. a police contingent came and they blocked both the entrances and said you are under house arrest. They didn’t give any reason for it. At around 11 a. m. the police contingent withdrew telling at the gate they, you are no longer under house arrest”, he said.
“We wanted to meet Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz. We want to strengthen the dialogue process between the two countries. We wanted to tell Aziz that it should not be an event. The talks process between the two countries should be a continuous process. India and Pakistan need to come to close and discuss Kashmir as it is the main bone of contention and they should not evade it. The killings continue here, there is tension on the borders and LoC. There is no escape route; the issue has to be addressed.”
All the leaders were later released, except Syed Ali Shah Geelani who continued to be under house arrest.
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