Kashmir unrest: Owaisi, Yechury to hold talks with separatists in 'individual capacity'
Three members of the all-party delegation, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Asaduddin Owaisi, will call on hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani for a "transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue" of Kashmir.
A section of the all-party delegation will today meet Hurriyat leaders after separatists turned down talks with them, sources said today.
Three members of the all-party delegation, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Asaduddin Owaisi, will to call on hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani for a "transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue" of Kashmir.
"The situation is very critical. It seems that the current situation is more critical than that in 2010. We are trying to maintain normalcy in the state," Sitaram Yechury said.
The leaders, who are part of an all-party delegation, said they would meet the Hurriyat in "individual capacity".
This came after separatists rejected Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's invitation to them for meeting with the delegation and termed the measure as "deceitful".
Also read: Kashmir unrest: Separatist leaders call Parliamentary delegation's visit a crisis management tactic
In a joint statement, separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (both of separate Hurriyat Conference factions) and Yasin Malik (of JKLF) dismissed the chief minister's offer.
"No one is more aware than Mehbooba Ji that the Indian war machine is on a spree to kill, maim and disfigure an entire population into complete submission for demanding freedom from Indian occupation which is the birth right of all human beings," the statement read.
Also read: Kashmir unrest: All-party meet with Mehbooba Mufti, other leaders ends
"Indian engagement with the people of Jammu and Kashmir has been only through state violence perpetrated through these armed forces that have killed close to a lakh and brutalized all of the population. In politics India has deployed deceit, double talk, themselves and through their quislings, continuously for the past 70 years. These deceitful methods of crisis management through Parliamentary Delegations and Track-II only prolong the sufferings of the people and cannot take the place of a genuine transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue of the peoples` right to self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir," the separatist leaders said.
WATCH: Hope our outreach to Hurriyat will help restore normalcy to the region: Sitaram Yechury