SRINAGAR, Aug 8: New Delhi-appointed interlocutors on Kashmir who were mandated to look for a political solution to the Kashmir issue are revisiting the valley again to seek feedback after their report failed to make any headway and was also criticised by almost all quarters of the disputed region.
The three member-committee comprising journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and former information commissioner M M Ansari will visit Kashmir on August 30 to seek out suggestions on their report and to “redraft it”.
“We will be meeting cross section of people to get feedback on our report. We would again go to people and ask them what the mistakes in the report are. We will seek suggestions from people about what we should add to our report and what issues should be put on backburner,” Radha Kumar was quoted as saying by local daily Greater Kashmir.
According to official sources, the interlocutors have again been mandated by Centre to determine what went wrong in the report which had recommended the solution of Kashmir issue by release of political prisoners and students held on charges of stone pelting, end to arrests of youth for their participation in 2010 protests and removal of bunkers from some residential areas of Srinagar city.
Meanwhile official sources said the interlocutors have been denied travel across the valley. “They had sought permission to tour the whole Kashmir to meet the people but higher ups were not satisfied with their suggestions and informed them to remain confined to Srinagar,” they said.
Separatists had termed the appointment of interlocutors and their reports as an ‘eye wash’ and to hoodwink the international community on Kashmir issue.
The chairman of the United Jehad Council, Syed Salahuddin, had described the Kashmir interlocutors’ report as a joint creation of the ‘union home ministry and saffron parties,’ and said that it was a conspiracy to pass the Kashmir imbroglio off as an administrative issue, and “to bury it for good.”
