A day ahead of the all party delegation to Kashmir, the mainstream opposition political leaders of the state called for dialogue with separatists and said that the visit without meeting the separatists will be a futile exercise.The opposition political parties including National Conference (NC), Congress, CPI (M) and People’s Democratic Front (PDF) said that such processes were initiated in the past as well but yielded no results. “This time the separatist leadership should also be invited so that the visit of the delegation will prove fruitful,” the opposition parties said.National Conference’s (NC), General Secretary, Ali Muhammad Sagar told KNS that the delegations like this visited the Valley in past as well but unfortunately that yielded no results.“There will be significance of delegation’s visit to Valley only after they meet the victim families and the separatist leaders,” he said.He said that if Government of India (GoI) is serious over resolving the Kashmir issue, then they should also initiate dialogue with separatist leaders.Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Chief, G H Mir told KNS that they have always demanded that the government should hold dialogue with all the stakeholders including separatists.“We wish that the decision of sending the delegation to Valley should have been taken earlier. If the decision would have been taken earlier then the situation in Kashmir would have been different,” he said.He said that to resolve the issue, they have already demanded that the separatist leaders should be taken on board. “If GoI in sincere in resolving the issue then they should take all the stakeholders of Kashmir on board,” he said.
Talking to KNS, PDF president and MLA Khansahib, Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen said since it is the third time that the delegation is scheduled to visit Kashmir. “No results yielded in past but this time the Government should invite the separatist leadership so that the visit of the delegation won’t be a futile exercise,” he said.“A dialogue without separatists won’t yield any result,” he said.He said that besides that the government priority should be given to the immediate end to the use of pellet guns and revocation of AFSPA.“After assurances by the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, there was no end to the use of pellet guns and several people continue to sustain injuries due to its use,” he said.CPI (M) state secretary, M Y Tarigami said the party’s General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury has already suggested that “separatist leaders must also be invited to meet the delegation.”Tarigami told KNS that he believes that state government must pick up the threads and take this initiative in this direction.He said, “Besides that, it will be advisable to release all the separatist leaders who are under detention.” (KNS)