Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday indicated the Centre is willing to talk with separatist outfits in Kashmir to find a lasting solution to the problems facing the troubled region.
“I recognise there are some political groups outside the mainstream. We’d like them to engage in a constructive dialogue with us,” he told reporters in Hua Hin, Thailand on Sunday.
The PM said he’d already had two-three rounds of meetings with the Hurriyat groups and was waiting for them to come back with specific suggestions.
Political leaders in Kashmir are looking forward to Singh’s first visit to the Valley during his second term as PM.
“We have expectations from (the) prime minister,” Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference told HT recently. “We expect that he’d further consolidate the process laid out by Home Minister P Chidambaram.”
At a seminar in London on Sunday, the Mirwaiz called upon Kashmiri parties across the state and the Pakistani side of the Line of Control to evolve a common minimum programme.