Modi's meeting with Kashmiri leaders ends, 'five demands put forward'

After a more than three-hour-long meeting between Jammu and Kashmir political leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said five demands –– granting of statehood, conducting Assembly elections to restore democracy, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in J&K, the release of all political detainees and that on domicile rules –– were put forward during their talks with the PM on Thursday.

Security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir remained on high alert in the wake of today's meeting in Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke face to face for the first time today (Thursday) with key political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir, almost two years after the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir lost its special status in the constitution.

India had said in August 2019 that the country's only Muslim-majority state would be divided into Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) aimed at developing the disputed region, where an armed movement against New Delhi's domination has been going on for decades.

Local political parties, including pro-India parties, strongly opposed India's abolition of the region's state and semi-autonomous status in 2019.

The pro-India political leadership of Indian-administered Kashmir announced its participation in a meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The announcement came after leaders of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of pro-India political parties formed to restore Kashmir's special constitutional status, on Tuesday met at the residence of the alliance's president and former chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar.

"We will put our stance before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah," the leaders who attended the meeting told reporters.

Farooq Abdullah said: “The Prime Minister has scheduled a meeting in New Delhi on June 24 at 3 pm in which we have been invited to attend. We have decided to attend this meeting. Our position is not hidden from anyone. We will put our stance before the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

Asked about the agenda of the meeting to be held in New Delhi, Farooq Abdullah said: "None of his agenda is fixed. We can talk about anything there. "

On this occasion, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said: "Whatever their agenda is, we will put our agenda before them. We will demand the release of political and other prisoners lodged in various jails in Kashmir and India and the transfer of those whose release is not possible to Kashmir.

She added: "We will talk about what has been taken away from us. We will tell them that you have taken unconstitutional and illegal steps. It is impossible to restore peace in Jammu and Kashmir and the entire region without restoring special constitutional status.

Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and spokesman for the PAGD, said: "We are not going to sign the agenda of the Indian government. If their proposal is in our favour then we will support it and if it is not in our favour then we will openly oppose it.

"Whether the Indian government has set an agenda for the meeting or not, we have no information," Tarigami said. We will reiterate our position in the meeting. We want to assure you that we will not ask for the stars of heaven, but we will ask for what was ours. We have to take the power of attorney of our people there.

On August 4, a day before the Indian government took such drastic measures, most pro-India Kashmiri political leaders, including three former chief ministers, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, were detained under strict rules.

Some of them were later released seven months later and some 14 months later.

There are two leaders of Mehbooba Mufti's party PDP who were released after the invitation of Prime Minister Modi's meeting were dispatched.

According to official sources, Fourteen leaders from Jammu and Kashmir and the Hindu-majority region of Jammu have been invited to the meeting to be chaired by the prime minister to discuss the future course of action for the union territory.

Among the political leaders invited to attend the meeting are Dr Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah from the National Conference, Mehbooba Mufti from the PDP, Ghulam Nabi Azad from the Congress, Tara Chand and Ghulam Ahmad Mir from the People's Party. Sajjad Ghani Lone and Muzaffar Hussain Baig from the conference, Altaf Bukhari from his party, Ravinder Raina from BJP, Nirmal Singh and Quinder Gupta, Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami from CPI (M) and Prof. Bhim Singh from National Panthers Party.

The government of the ruling Hindu nationalist party BJP in India not only abolished the special constitutional status of Muslim-majority Kashmir on August 5, 2019, but also divided the disputed region into two federally administered territories.

This is the first time since August 5, 2019, that pro-India political leaders of Kashmir have been invited to meet Prime Minister Modi.

The meeting is the first such exercise since the Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019.

The PAGD is a six-party alliance of mainstream parties that came into existence after the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.