Hurriyat very subjective on talks: Omar Abdullah

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took a dig at moderate Hurriyat Conference for holding talks with Pakistan and not coming to Delhi for discussions with the central leadership.

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday took a dig at moderate Hurriyat Conference for holding talks with Pakistan and not coming to Delhi for discussions with the central leadership.

"They (Hurriyat) are very subjective to who they talk to while they do not have any hesitation to board a plane to Islamabad and talk to leadership there.

"The same people are averse to boarding a plane and coming to Delhi and talking to leadership here. They will only be really meaningfully achieve something if they talk to both the sides. Otherwise it is not going to work," he told reporters here.

"That having been said talking is not bad thing. It also shows that government of India is not unnecessarily vindictive. Government just could have been easier taken a line - that if you don`t talk to us, we would not let you talk to other side as well, which they did not do."

He said the time has come when Hurriyat Conference need to meaningfully engage with the government and see how the dialogue process can be taken forward.

Omar said that there would be people like Syed Ali Shah Geelani who won`t talk.
"There would be those who don`t talk and Geelani is at the forefront of that. He has not gone to Pakistan and so he is not talking to anybody there and he is not talking to anyone here," he said.

"But those who are willing to talk to one side should be encouraged to talk to other side as well," he added.

A delegation led by Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq is at present in Pakistan holding talks with leaders there including President Asif Zardari and others.

On a question about former militants getting important government jobs, Omar said that in some of the cases there have been such instances where appointment letters have been issued pending police verification.

But having said that there is a need for rehabilitation of former militants some way or the other, he said and pointed out cases where such former militants were roped in back to militancy after they failed to earn their livelihood.

In the case of gunning down of two panches and attack on a hotel in the outskirts of the city, investigations show that former militants were involved in both the incidents, he said.

"You have a responsibility towards rehabilitating former militants. Because of you do not do it they might become major problem for us," he added.

On the issue of corruption, he said many steps have been taken to curb corruption which include immediate grant of sanction to prosecute such people.

The Central Vigilance Commission will come into effect soon, he said and added that "we will take necessary harsh steps to ensure that corruption is reduced and ultimately eliminated."

Asked his leader of opposition Mehbooba Mufti has been claiming that the corruption had increased, Omar said very humbly "mein unki kisi baat ka jawab nahi deta, log dete hain. Abhi MLC elections mein bhi diya tha aagey bhi denge (I don`t reply her accusations but people do and recent MLC elections, people have answered."

Recently, ruling National Conference-Congress alliance swept the MLC polls by winning all the four seats.

PTI

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