Hurriyat leader Geelani asks all stakeholders to refrain from all-party delegation meet

Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani today asked “all stakeholders” to refrain from meeting the all-party delegation led by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh which is scheduled to arrive here on Sunday.

The 28-member all-party delegation is slated to hold interactions with various sections in the wake of the latest wave of violence in Kashmir that has left 69 people dead.

In a statement, the Hurriyat hawk said such an exercise would be meaningless as the lawmakers have not recognised Kashmir as a dispute.

Meanwhile terming the upcoming visit of the ‘All Party Delegation’ to Jammu and Kashmir as “half-hearted” measure, the business fraternity in the Valley today said it would talk with the delegation if they talk to the Hurriyat.

“The Kashmir Inc unanimously resolved not to meet the Union Home Minister-led All Party Delegation scheduled to visit Valley on September 4. Such half-hearted measures won’t solve any purpose as this dialogue seems to be conducted without seizing the hostilities and pressure tactics,” several trade bodies of Kashmir said in a joint statement issued here.

“Kashmir Inc being apolitical would talk to the All Party Delegation if they talk to the Hurriyat,” it said.

The statement was issued after a joint meeting of over a dozen heads of various trade, transport and tourism bodies, including Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kashmir Economic Alliance, Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation, Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir, All Kashmir Fruit growers association, Tourism Alliance, Houseboat Association and All Kashmir Transport Welfare Association.

“The meeting unanimously resolved that meeting the visiting delegations will be nothing beyond a foolish exercise aimed at a photo session, which will only end up adding salts to the wounds’ of Kashmir’s worst-ever humanitarian crises,” the statement said.

The business community said it has become a “ritual” for the Centre to send a team to Kashmir whereas every such time “human rights abuse scaled new heights”.

“Let the mockery of symbolic Kashmir visits over our tragedy end, and seriousness begin for an effort for sustainable solution to Kashmir dispute. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha recently sought a permanent solution, which can’t come through cosmetic patchwork where all party comes in with rigidity. Tangible measures need to be taken...as per the agenda-of-alliance (reached between PDP-BJP coalition partners ahead of forming the government in the state),” it said.