S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, April 29
The third roundtable conference (RTC) has triggered political activity and a series of public meetings by mainstream parties and separatists giving an impression that snap polls might be held for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
The Kashmir valley has become a battlefield where not only the coalition partners, the Congress and the PDP, were holding separate public meetings almost every day, but Opposition parties have also started flexing their muscles.
With a term of six years, the elections for the Assembly here are due in November next year, but feverish political activity points towards early polls. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad recently asked Congress activists to be prepared for early elections.
The recent statement of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf that solution to the Kashmir problem might come earlier than expected has also caused speculations and expectations in the valley.
Hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's public meeting in the heart of the Srinagar city where anti-India slogans were raised on Monday last has generated heat in the state as well as in Parliament. In a belated action, a couple of Geelani's lieutenants have been taken in custody.
Geelani and PDP leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed were targets of the National Conference (NC) leaders, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, in their public meeting at Srinagar yesterday. The father and son accused the Mufti of representing the voice of militants. They challenged Geelani to test his strength by contesting the Assembly elections.
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, has added yet another dimension to the controversy by suggesting to New Delhi to provide a safe passage for the return of terrorists to Pakistan.
Qayyum Khan, who was in New Delhi to participate in the "heart-to-heart" talks on Kashmir organised by Bhim Singh of the Panthers Party, also gave a clean-chit to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) outfit by describing it as a non-terrorist organisation.
Chief Minister Azad was prompt in rejecting the demand when he announced at Reasi yesterday that there was no question of amnesty to ultras.
Interestingly, while the former terrorists, who have now joined the mainstream here, were stressing that the Centre and the state governments should not bow before the separatists,leaders of various political parties were demanding that New Delhi should initiate dialogue with not only the separatists but also the Pakistan-based top terrorist leader Syed Salahudin.
The Mufti and transport minister Hakeem Yaseen have been making the demand. They are learnt to have touched the issue also during the RTC in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, Salahudin's former deputy Usman Majeed ridicules the demand by pointing out the situation might go out of control once the Centre showed its weakness before the separatists and ultras. Majeed warned that Musharraf's road map would lead towards the separation of Kashmir from India.
On the other hand, Hashim Qureshi, who hijacked an IAC aircraft to Pakistan leading to the war of 1971, is now critical of Pakistan and was opposed to any dialogue with ultras.
BJP leader Hari Om, who has returned after participating in the RTC, says abrogation of the Article 370 providing special status to Jammu and Kashmir was the only solution to the Kashmir problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment