Ahead of their proposed meeting with Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz in Delhi, Kashmiri separatist leaders including Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Abbas Ansari were on Thursday put under house arrest here.
While hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was already under house arrest, similar restrictions were placed on moderate faction chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq at his Nigeen residence and on Abbas Ansari, who lives in Nawakadal, police and Hurriyat sources said.
The Pakistan High Commission in Delhi had invited Geelani for a meeting on August 24 with Aziz, who will be in the national capital for talks with Indian NSA Ajit Doval. Moderate separatist leaders have also been invited for a reception being hosted by the High Commission in New Delhi for the visiting Pakistani official on August 23.
India had cancelled Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan in August last year after its envoy invited separatist leaders for consultations ahead of the meeting in Islamabad.
Criticising Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Opposition National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the state governments had never detained Hurriyat leaders in the past to prevent them from visiting the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi.
He claimed the India-Pakistan talks were being held “under international pressure” with both countries hoping the other will pull out.
“Shelling, Infiltration, terror attacks & now Hurriyat arrests, clearly no side wants to talk & yet neither side has the guts to call it off (sic),” the former chief minister said in a series of tweets. “I’ve never seen an Indo-Pak dialogue where both sides are so keen to sabotage it.
India & Pak competing to give reasons to call off talks. It’s so obvious that Ufa & now these planned NSA talks are under international pressure with both Ind & Pak hoping the other will pull out (sic),” he said.
The Congress too took a jibe at the Centre, saying the Prime Minister must answer if India is under pressure of some “foreign power” to hold talks to Pakistan notwithstanding “all these provocations by Pakistan”.
“The Prime Minister needs to answer this question as last time when Pakistan High Commission invited the Hurriyat, government called off the talks,” party leader Manish Tewari said.
BJP leaders in Jammu and Kashmir said the Hurriyat Conference should not be allowed to hold talks with Pakistani officials.