Omar for ‘triangular’ dialogue

New Delhi
Nov. 29: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in a major shift in stance, indicated he was now in favour of holding triangular talks between India, Pakistan and the separatist leadership in the state. He has even offered to act as a facilitator if the Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit wanted to come to the negotiating table.

Mr Abdullah made it clear his government would not only like to play the “role of a facilitator” for the Hurriyat Conference, but for other militant groups like the Hizbul Mujahideen as well — “as long as they give up the wrong side, the path of violence”.

“I think again it is realistic. You are not going to get a situation where New Delhi, Islamabad and the Hurriyat are going to be sitting at the same table — it is not going to happen. Therefore, if you can work a system wherein you engage with Islamabad and you engage with New Delhi, both at the same time, I see no harm in it,” he said in a television interview. Mr Abdullah went on to caution moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, asking him to take his other members on board for talks as "otherwise all they will do is (to) jump on to the hardline bandwagon and threaten the process."

Making out a case for triangular talks, the CM said: “We have done it from the mainstream point of view. I have had engagement with Pakistan as well as the government of India, and I don’t think anything harmful has come out of that.”

Responding to reports of home minister P. Chidambaram holding secret parleys with the Hurriyat chairperson, Mr Abdullah said there was no harm in having a dialogue. “I think quiet diplomacy is necessary for both sides to feel each other out, to see where the lines in the sand can be drawn, what they expect from each other, and a certain amount of confidence-building. Once that is done, then the rest of the discussion can take place with the glare of all the publicity and attention that will follow. But for the time being, a little bit of quiet won’t hurt anybody,” he said.

Referring to the Hurriyat’s stand on talks, he said: “I think it is the most realistic line we have heard from the Hurriyat in a very long time." He added, however, that the Mirwaiz was just one individual among a large number of leaders. Asked if hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had set a goalpost that makes dialogue with him impossible, and could the talks be meaningful, Mr Abdullah said: “Sure, no solution is going to be acceptable to 100 per cent of the people. We should have the willingness to accept that.”

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement in Kashmir that there was no preconditions for talks with Pakistan but it was essential that effective control be exercised over terrorist groups that targeted India, the chief minister said: "I think there is no doubt that it would definitely help Pakistan to exercise control over the forces that have in the past been used against India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir... So it’s a win-win for both sides."