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Released JKLF ultras welcome steps taken by Sayeed

Three top militants of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, who were released by a court recently on bail, on Monday welcomed the 'healing steps' taken by chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed but said it would not lead to the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

"There has been a perceivable change in the situation after the new government took over," Showkat Bakshi, one of the accused in the Rubaiyya Sayeed abduction case, told reporters at the All Parties Hurriyat Conference headquarters in Srinagar.

He claimed that the new government could resolve the Kashmir issue as governments come and go for administrative purposes only. "A dialogue between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris should start to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue."

"The new chief minister has called for unconditional talks to resolve the basic [Kashmir] issue, while former chief minister Farooq Abdullah was dead against any such dialogue," Bakshi, flanked by other former JKLF commanders Nazir Ahmad Shiekh and Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, said.

The former JKLF commander, who is also under trial for the killing of four air force officers in Srinagar in 1989, was non-committal about a ceasefire in J&K saying the defence minister has already rejected it.

Asked if he was satisfied with the functioning of the Hurriyat Conference, Bakshi said "[The] JKLF is a constituent of Hurriyat and we will all abide by the party directives."

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