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US officials may hold talks with APHC

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

A team of five or six officials from the US state department is expected to visit the capital to speak to leaders of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference before their likely departure for Pakistan, highly placed government sources said.

There was, however, no independent confirmation of this from the United States embassy or the Indian government. The Hurriyat office in New Delhi too said it had no information about the meeting. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the only senior Hurriyat leader in New Delhi, was unavailable for comment as he is undergoing treatment.

The Americans were expected to reach New Delhi on Friday. The meeting is being facilitated by influential Kashmiri leaders in the US.

Meanwhile, the APHC office said Geelani, the Jamaat-e-Islami hardliner whose travel documents are proving to be the stumbling block for the visit to Pakistan, will not attend the Hurriyat executive's meeting in Srinagar on Saturday. But "a representative of Mr Geelani will attend the meeting", an APHC spokesman said.

Saturday's meeting is expected to witness yet again a division in the APHC leadership, this time over setting an agenda for its visit to Pakistan. While the hardliners have been advocating that the five-member team selected to hold talks in Pakistan go with an open agenda, the liberals are insisting that the agenda be defined in advance.

Geelani believes a pre-set agenda will jeopardise the mission. But leaders like Yasin Malik believe that if the team goes without an agenda, it will only add to the confusion and they won't succeed in their attempt to persuade the militants to cease firing.

On the government's part, indications till Friday evening were that Geelani, who is close to terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, would not be given his travel documents. The terrorist groups have taken to hailing Geelani as a true Kashmiri leader. In fact, these groups, which have opposed the ceasefire in Kashmir, even welcomed Geelani's presence in the five-member team to Pakistan.

A possible way out for the delegation to travel to Pakistan is Geelani's exclusion. "His health could be a good excuse," some APHC cadres pointed out. Travel documents of three of the other four members of the delegation are ready.

If Geelani opts out, the other four Hurriyat leaders could still travel to Pakistan, but they may not receive a warm welcome. Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani has already said the government will issue travel documents only to 'deserving' leaders of the conference. He, in fact, is not even in favour of tripartite talks involving Pakistan.

Though the government now realises that it is caught in a trap of its own making, there is a desperate search for a way out. Several responsible officials have suggested that the ceasefire may not be extended. Secondly, they point out, a way out of the present impasse could be to hold foreign secretary-level talks, probably in Islamabad.

Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh has already indicated that he is willing to travel to Pakistan to hold talks, if need be.

The Government's Ceasefire: The complete coverage

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