Anti-talks stir paralyses Kashmir

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

A strike organised by the All-Party Hurriyat Conference because Kashmiris were not included in the Indo-Pak foreign secretary-level talks in New Delhi crippled life in Kashmir on Friday.

Traffic was off the roads and all shops, schools and offices were closed in Srinagar. Reports said the strike paralysed life in other towns too. Security was tightened as 10 persons, including some militants, were killed in the valley.

In a statement the APHC described the secretary-level talks as a 'futile exercise'. Hurriyat chairman Moulvi Umar Farooq said the Kashmiris should be involved in the dialogue if it were to serve any purpose. The APHC said it was not a border dispute between India and Pakistan but the question of the political future of the Kashmiris and this had to be decided by the people of the state.

Farooq said 60,000 people have been killed in Kashmir, while thousands others are languishing in various jails. Several rounds of talks between Pakistan and India had achieved no tangible results. And none were likely, he said.

People’s League chief Shabir Ahmad Shah said any agreement reached on the Kashmir issue without Kashmiri participation is "destined to prove flimsy and futile as it has proved in the past". Shabir Shah was arrested by police along with some of his supporters near the United Nations office here while trying to submit a memorandum to UN observers.