Hurriyat leaders ready for talks with Center: J&K Guv

Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday said that Hurriyat leaders who shut doors to a parliamentary delegation in 2016, are today ready to hold talks with the Center.

“Earlier Hurriyat leaders were shutting their doors on dialogue but are now ready for talks with the government,” he said while speaking at a function in Srinagar during the distribution of free-to-air Doordarshan set-top boxes to border residents.

The governor said they don’t feel happy when a militant is killed. “We want them to return,” he said.

However, Malik was quick to add that any action by the militants against security forces will be reiterated. “The youth (militants) are being befooled by saying that they will get paradise if they will be killed. If they return, they will get two paradise, one is Kashmir and if they live like practical Muslims then they will get the another as well,” he added.

Recently, Malik while reaching out to local militants had said, they should give up arms as the government was ready to hold talks with them.

The governor said recruitment of locals into militant in the Valley has almost stopped “while as the stone pelting incidents especially after Friday prayers has also almost stopped.”

“I feel happy that the temperature in the Valley has gone down as compared to what it was during my arrival in Kashmir. There is unemployment across the country but unemployed people (elsewhere) in the country do not pick up weapons against the government. There is something more here. The basic thing here is that the leaders have not told people the truth. People have been misled and shown false dreams, which will never be fulfilled,” he said.

Malik also praised moderate Hurriyat Conference chief and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq for raising his voice against drug menace in the Valley. While addressing Friday congregational gathering at Jamia Masjid here, Mirwaiz had expressed concerned over growing drug and liquor abuse in Kashmir.

“Availability of drugs and its distribution has become a well-organized trade in Kashmir, especially in Srinagar where during evening hours, drug peddlers openly distribute drugs to distributors and youth at graveyards, parks, playgrounds and anywhere. Kashmir’s young generation is fast falling prey to this unchecked growing menace,” the separatist leader had said.