Srinagar: The Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led Hurriyat Conference Thursday  termed as “misleading” the reported statement of India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs R P N Singh that the Government of India  was talking with the pro-freedom  leadership, and said it has been done to “hoodwink” the public opinion.
“The minister’s statement is misleading and made with an intention to malign the image of Hurriyat leadership as well as to hoodwink the public opinion here and abroad,” the Hurriyat faction said in a statement here.
It was the considered policy of Hurriyat that the resolution of Kashmir issue lies in the implementation of UN resolutions or through a dialogue among the main stake holders– people of Kashmir, India and Pakistan– but at present no dialogue is going on between Hurriyat and the GoI, the statement said.
“Hurriyat believes in transparency with regard to dialogue and whenever we met Indian or Pakistani leadership it was done before the full public gaze and in a transparent manner,” the statement said.
Referring to Singh’s statement  that Mirwaiz had met a former intelligence officer in November 2013 , the statement said “meeting prominent people, intellectuals, journalists and diplomats was part of Hurriyat agenda to make efforts to find a peaceful solution of Kashmir dispute.”
“ In pursuance of  this policy,  Hurriyat leaders met A  S Dulat( former RAW chief), in New Delhi in November  2013 and the leadership informed the Hurriyat rank and file and also the people in general about this meeting.  Singh has himself admitted that the officer was not meeting Hurriyat on behalf of the Indian  government by disclosing that  it was not aware of the deliberations of the meeting.”
It said Hurriyat was not shy of a dialogue and whenever the amalgam feels that the possibility of a purposeful dialogue to settle the “dispute of Jammu and Kashmir permanently arises, the Hurriyat will not hesitate to participate”.

KR Desk