Hurriyat for unconditional talks: Mirwaiz

The moderate faction of the All Party Hurriyat Conference is willing to resume dialogue with the Centre in the next two months.

The Kashmir Valley head priest Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who heads the moderate faction, said the Kashmiri leadership would not insist on any precondition.

What’s more, he said his party was also keen on talking to Pakistan.

The Hurriyat Conference is an umbrella organisation of 24 Kashmir-based parties.

Farooq is also trying to reach an understanding with his hard-line counterpart Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the United Jehad Council before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Kashmir end of this month.

He said, “ We want everybody to participate in the process.”

Since 2004, the Umer Farooq faction has held three rounds of talks with the government, while the Geelani faction has refused to come to the negotiation table until the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is scrapped.