Will boycott Kashmir interlocutors: Geelani

NEW DELHI - Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani Thursday said he will not speak to the newly-appointed team of interlocutors and asked Kashmiri students and traders associations to also not speak to them.

“All previous dialogue processes with India have failed, and we have held some 150 rounds of talks since 1947 without solving the issue. I request all Kashmiri students and traders associations to boycott them,” the separatist leader said at a seminar here Thursday evening.

Geelani reiterated his position that the Kashmir issue could be solved only through the right to self-determination and the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be given a chance to determine their fate. “Whatever the majority wills will emerge from the plebiscite and would be acceptable to all,” he said.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by The Campaign for Relief of Political Prisoners.

The three-member apolitical team of interlocutors comprises academic Radha Kumar, journalist Dileep Padgaonkar and former information commissioner M.M. Ansari.

The three met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday and said that he had asked them to look for a political solution to the dragging crisis in the state and especially speak to “youths and women”.

The three interlocutors were appointed Oct 13. The team had met Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday.

Thousands of people have died since insurgency began in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989. While things were beginning to look up last year, the state was plunged into a fresh crisis after stone-pelting protesters started clashing with the security forces. At least 110 people have been killed in the ongoing unrest since June 11.