SRINAGAR: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat Conference reaffirmed support Monday for dialogue with the Centre, a day after defence minister Rajnath Singh told rallies in Jammu that the Centre had sent a parliamentary delegation in 2016 to initiate talks for peace in J&K but the Hurriyat leaders had “shut their doors on them”. At rallies in Ramban and Banihal on Sunday, Rajnath had further said he had spoken to then CM Mehbooba Mufti about how normality could be achieved, even agreeing to withdraw cases against minors. Rajnath was Union home minister then, and BJP and Mehbooba’s PDP ran a coalition govt in J&K.
“We even brought (some opposition MPs) Sharad Yadav and other senior leaders to negotiate with Hurriyat but they closed the doors to the visiting delegation,” Rajnath had said. Syed Ali Shah Geelani , who led Hurriyat’s hardline faction, had turned away the delegation of MPs, led by Rajnath. Geelani died in 2021.
On Monday, Mirwaiz Umar -- who then led Hurriyat’s moderate faction -- sought “to set the record straight” about the events surrounding the parliamentary delegation. According to Mirwaiz Umar, he was in jail at the time and Mehbooba sent him a letter as PDP chief through jail officials requesting him to meet the delegation. “AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi , a member of the delegation, came to see me in jail.
Owaisi told me the delegation wanted to meet the Hurriyat leadership regarding the grim situation (in J&K),” Mirwaiz Umar told TOI . He .
