Manmohan wanted to contact Pakistani militants: Yasin

JKlF leader Yasin Malik has said then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh wanted him to contact militants in Pakistan. Malik told Rajat Sharma in his TV show "Aap ki Adalat" that the request was made to him in 2006, two years after Manmohan Singh became prime minister.

According to Malik, Manmohan Singh desired the contacts so as to give a boost to the India-Pakistan peace process. "I had a meeting with Manmohan Singh in 2006 in which I told him that the government should involve militant leadership in peace talks," Malik said. "The PM said he needed our help in this regard." Malik said when he went to "Azad Kashmir" in Pakistan, he went to a lashkar-e-Taiba camp where its leader Hafiz Saeed organised a felicitation event. "I addressed the lashkar cadres there."

The JKlF leader provided no details about whether or not he contacted militants in Pakistan as supposedly desired by Manmohan Singh. Asked about the JKlF's policy on Jammu and Kashmir, he said: "India considers Kashmir its integral part, its crown, while Pakistan considers it its jugular vein. "Our party's view is that it is for the Kashmiris to decide their fate democratically. Our political belief is that we want azadi (freedom)."