Congress discusses Kashmir, all-party team visit likely Monday

NEW DELHI - The Congress core committee met Thursday to discuss the Kashmir situation as the government was working out modalities for an all-party delegation to visit the troubled state, likely on Monday.

The Congress committee meeting, which was held at Prime Minister Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence, was attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, and senior ministers A.K. Antony, Pranab Mukherjee and P. Chidambaram.

The meeting discussed the approach to the all-party visit, Congress circles said.

The core committee met on the day Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi supported Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and said that “Omar needed support and time” to handle the “tough and sensitive” Kashmir job.

Soon after Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Kolkata, Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah met Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh separately. Emerging from the meeting with the prime minister, Farooq said that “Omar has no intention of quitting”.

The details about the all-party team were still being worked out, Congress circles said.

“Things are not finalised so far. Many partymen from Jammu and Kashmir want Sonia to be in the delegation to give a healing touch to the residents, caught in the three-month-old violence and disruption,” an office-bearer of the All India Congress Committee told IANS.

If Sonia Gandhi joins the team, senior leaders of other parties like L.K. Advani (Bharatiya Janata Party), Prakash Karat (Communist Party of India-Marxist) and Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) may join the delegation, sources said.

“Wait for a day more. The picture will be clear on Friday,” a senior home ministry official told IANS.

The union home ministry, alongwith the Jammu and Kashmir government, is facilitating the visit.

An all-party meeting on Kashmir here Wednesday, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, decided to send an all-party delegation to Kashmir where 90 civilians, mostly teenagers and youth, have been killed in firing by security forces in the cycle of violence triggered by street protests since June 11.

The meeting was of the view that any decision on the demand for withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and release of prisoners may be taken after the all-party team gets a first hand impression of the situation in Kashmir.