First meeting between Kashmir separatists and Indian PM
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today is due to meet a Kashmir separatist leader to find ways to end violence in the troubled state. The talks were announced as part of a wider peace process between India and Pakistan to settle their long-festering dispute over the Himalayan territory that has triggered wars between the two in 1948 and 1965.
"These talks are linked with what is going on between India and Pakistan," said Tahir Mohiudin, editor of The Rock, an Urdu weekly. "I think at the grassroots level many things have already been discussed and decided."
"Hopefully the environment is better than before. India and Pakistan are positively engaged," said Kashmir's top separatist cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who will lead the Hurriyat separatist alliance's moderate wing in the talks. "I hope this [meeting] will be a new beginning," he said.
One issue the 32-year-old cleric, who has emerged as the key separatist player in the dialogue with New Delhi, is expected to push is a troop cut among other steps to improve the lives of ordinary Kashmiris.
Relations between the Indian Army and ordinary Kashmiris have gone from bad to worse since 1989, when the current crisis in the predominantly-Muslim Indian state began.
Although New Delhi has never revealed the exact figure of its troop deployment in Kashmir, analysts quoted in the press have set the number at 400,000.
Today's discussions are being held at Singh's invitation and are scheduled ahead of a meeting between him and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in mid-September in New York, where Kashmir will be the key topic.
The Indian Prime Minister has stated that talks were aimed at providing a "sense of harmony, peace and tranquillity to the long suffering people of Jammu and Kashmir."
Talks with India are "part of a triangular process," Mr Farooq said, referring to India's talks with Pakistan as the separatists concurrently deal with both India and Pakistan.
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