New Delhi, May 11: London-based International Kashmir Alliance (IKA), a newly formed amalgam of expatriate Kashmiri leaders, today said that it was not averse to meeting with the Centre's interlocutor N N Vohra and criticised Hurriyat for practising "politics on a failed pitch". "Vohra is an able person and is highly respected member of Indian establishment. He carries the trust of the state of India and we have no problem in meeting him," Syed Nazir Gilani, chairman of IKA, said in his first interview with a news agency after the formation of the alliance last month.

He said "after all, if we succeed in convincing Vohra of the merits of our case and that every tragedy has a saturation point, we shall have convinced an important Indian... This is an age of argument, agreement and transparency. If the parties keep to these three principles, there is no problem." Advocating the need for talks with Vohra, he said, "We understand the jurisprudence of a dialogue between a person nominated by a sovereign democratic state and ourselves."

Coming down heavily on Hurriyat, Gilani, who is also chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights, said "Hurriyat announced a ceasefire and failed. It announced its Election Commission and failed. The amalgam leaders are practising politics on a failed pitch." "They (Hurriyat) cannot see beyond the length of their noses and have no concept that a leader has to see beyond tomorrow which does not belong to the Hurriyat," the IKA chairman said.

Bureau Report