Srinagar: Moderate separatist leaders admitted to the US Embassy officials in Delhi that they had entered "quiet dialogue" with the Centre but disengaged following attack on their colleague Fazal Haq Qureshi which was intended as a clear message about "perils" of engagement.
"Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Syed Agha Hassan said the attempted assassination of their moderate APHC colleague Fazal ul Qureshi was intended to be a clear message to them of the perils faced by those who talk to the Government of India. They conceded that the attack on Qureshi had made them more cautious in engaging with the GOI," then US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer wrote in a cable to Washington on February 10, 2010.
One of the cables from the US Embassy released by Wikileaks this week said.
"The senior leadership of the All Party Hurriyat Conference told Poloff (political office) that they are discouraged by the turn of events recently and the high hopes they had in the Srinagar-Delhi dialogue have been deflated, at least for now," Roemer said in the cable.
During a press conference in Srinagar, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on October 14, 2009 announced that the Centre was ready to hold a "quiet dialogue" with all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir for seeking a solution to Kashmir issue.
"Mirwaiz and his colleagues said that the Srinagar-Delhi dialogue has for all practical purposes been suspended by them, at least for now. They admitted that they had lost some political ground in the valley, not because the Kashmiri people were opposed to talks with the Government but because opponents had run an effective campaign which questioned the 'quiet' nature of the talks, with warnings about cutting secret deals and selling out," the Ambassador noted.
In another cable sent in November 2009, Roemer said that senior Hurriyat Executive member Bilal Gani Lone confirmed to political office of the US Embassy that separatists were talking to the Centre.
"He (Lone) observed that his group is approaching the discussion with a seriousness of purpose that was missing in 2005, the last time that the GOI engaged with the separatists," the cable said.
"We are determined to get results this time," the cable quoted Lone as saying and described the separatist leader as "generally candid and forthcoming".
Lone had pleaded for "sanctity" of the dialogue, saying it is imperative that discussions remain close hold until there are some concrete deliverables.
"He expressed great concern at the media's coverage of the GOI-separatist dialogue, saying that the press is over-hyping the story beyond what it deserves at this point," the cable from Roemer added.
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