Kashmir rebels ready for talks, says Satya Pal Malik

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday welcomed the ‘change of heart’ among the separatist leaders over the option of resolving the issues confronting the state through talks.

“The hurriyat (conference) leaders who once shut their doors to Ram Vilas Paswan are now saying they are ready for talks,” he said while speaking at a function here.

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said on Saturday efforts were on to open a multiplex in the valley in order to provide an avenue for the entertainment-starved people here.

“I regret that there is nothing to do in Kashmir after 6 pm. Cinema halls are closed for decades now, coffee-house licence will take four years to get. There is no place where you can go,” Malik said at a function to launch Doordarshan's free Dish TV in Kashmir. “The people here are so lively that on holidays they will go to fields and parks to have their lunch there. We have not been able to give them any avenue of entertainment,” the governor said.

“Now we are trying to set up a multiplex. There is friend who is determined to establish a multiplex (in Kashmir).”

Cinema halls in Kashmir were closed down in 1989 by militant groups at the time of the eruption of insurgency. Efforts were made to revive some of the halls in early, but had to be closed again due to grenade attacks by militants.

Malik said Doordarshan had fulfilled the need for credible news and information in a place like Kashmir where “rumours become the news”.

“There are so many rumours here that it takes three days to put them to rest.

They become news,” he said. “So a medium that is credible, believable and with wide reach was needed. You've done that.”

The governor said while there were many traditional forms of entertainment in villages, there were no such things in cities.”