Srinagar: Moderate separatist leaders
admitted to the US Embassy officials in Delhi that they had
entered "quiet dialogue" with the Centre but disengaged
following attack on their colleague Fazal Haq Qureshi which
was intended as a clear message about "perils" of engagement.
"Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal
Lone and Syed Agha Hassan said the attempted assassination of
their moderate APHC colleague Fazal ul Qureshi was intended to
be a clear message to them of the perils faced by those who
talk to the Government of India. They conceded that the attack
on Qureshi had made them more cautious in engaging with the
GOI," then US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer wrote in a
cable to Washington on February 10, 2010.
One of the cables from the US Embassy released by
WikiLeaks this week said.
"The senior leadership of the All Party Hurriyat
Conference told Poloff (political office) that they are
discouraged by the turn of events recently and the high hopes
they had in the Srinagar-Delhi dialogue have been deflated, at
least for now," Roemer said in the cable.
During a press conference in Srinagar, Union Home
Minister P Chidambaram on October 14, 2009 announced that the
Centre was ready to hold a "quiet dialogue" with all shades of
opinion in Jammu and Kashmir for seeking a solution to Kashmir
issue.
"Mirwaiz and his colleagues said that the Srinagar-Delhi
dialogue has for all practical purposes been suspended by
them, at least for now. They admitted that they had lost some
political ground in the valley, not because the Kashmiri
people were opposed to talks with the Government but because
opponents had run an effective campaign which questioned the
`quiet` nature of the talks, with warnings about cutting
secret deals and selling out," the Ambassador noted.
In another cable sent in November 2009, Roemer said that
senior Hurriyat Executive member Bilal Gani Lone confirmed to
political office of the US Embassy that separatists were
talking to the Centre.
PTI
