The five-member delegation led by former Foreign Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha concluded its three-day visit to Kashmir, an effort to mediate between the separatists and the Government to end the deadlock in Kashmir due to the ongoing shutdown and public protests.
The delegation revisited senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s residence for “some clarifications” before calling upon Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan who stressed the importance of a sustained dialogue with all stakeholders for securing very early restoration of peace and normalcy in the State.
During the visit, the delegation met a host of separatist leaders including Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and Shabir Shah besides trade union leaders and civil society members to get the actual feedback on the ground situation in Kashmir.
Though the delegation declined to be called a Government-sponsored team, sources said that the intervention has the official go-ahead. The details of the meetings, especially with the separatists were not revealed to the media.
Sources said that the initiative was undertaken by New Delhi based Center for Dialogue and Research (CDR) headed by Soshoba Bharve, who has been active in dialogue and reconciliation processes in Kashmir for past several years. A source said that the initiative can be called as civil society’s track-two effort. Besides Sinha and Bharve, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak and veteran journalist Bharat Bhushan.
The delegation arrived here on October 25 and found the separatist leaders ready to talk to them unlike on a similar Government sponsored effort in September last. During the visit of the all-party delegation led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, a group of Parliament members led by CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yachury was rebuffed by separatists when Geelani disallowed them to enter his residence on September 4. Geelani, however, welcomed this delegation with open arms and served the members with Kashmiri kehwa. He described the 80-minute talks as held in positive atmosphere.