Mission Kashmir: What Pak’s National Day Means for the Valley

The Pakistan envoy’s invite to the Hurriyat has forced every stakeholder to take a position. Hear the views from Delhi and the Valley.

Export LeT, Invite Hurriyat

Kargil. Uri. Kathua. Samba.

Just days after the LeT’s fedayeen attack at Rajbagh police station in Jammu’s Kathua district, Abdul Basit, the Pakistan envoy to India, invited Hurriyat leaders to Delhi to celebrate its National Day, for the first time in 7 years.

Also, controversially, on the guest list, was Masarat Alam, the Hurriyat hardliner, who has spent the last five years under arrest in Kashmir, seen by the state administration as the man behind the stone-pelting rage in the Valley in 2010, that claimed dozens of lives.

While Alam extended his greetings to Pakistan, he cited ‘health issues’ which kept him away from the celebrations.

‘Bilateral Talks’ of a Different Kind

While Alam didn’t make it, the Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq did meet the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi.

India had previously called off Foreign Secretary level Indo-Pak talks scheduled for August, 2014, after Abdul Basit had met Kashmiri separatist leaders, despite India’s requests to not do so. Farooq claimed that meeting officials from both Delhi and Islamabad, was for him, a way forward.

CM Sayeed Playing Hawk & Dove

J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed walks a thin line. He had to take a tough stand on the Kathua and Samba attacks, attacking Pakistan for backing terror yet again. But he also remains a votary for dialogue with Pakistan, with a role for the Hurriyat at the negotiation table.

Valley Vents Against Pakistan

This time around however, there are stronger voices expressing anger at Pakistan. Many of those voices are on social media -

#Pakistan if it is interested in peace in Kashmir, should invite elected representatives as well and not the Hurriyat alone (sic).

We Indians develop Kashmir, Pakistan terrorises Kashmir (sic).

While it does come as a surprise that the Valley should vent its ire against Pakistan, Riyaz Masroor - a social activist and writer - says that both India and Pakistan have both individually erred in the region, with neither benefitting from the other’s mistakes.

Now, Masroor suggests, Pakistan is gradually losing its hold over its supporters in the Valley.

While Pakistan had an ‘emotional constituency’ in Kashmir, India has always had a ‘political constituency’ in the region. However, neither has translated her political constituency into an emotional one, nor has Pakistan transformed her emotional constituency into a real political one.

- Riyaz Masroor, Writer and Social Activist

Rajnath in a Bind

Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, has had to take a lot in his stride recently. The release of Masarat Alam caught him off-guard and fumbling for answers in Parliament. On the Pak envoy’s invite to the Hurriyat too, there was no tough talking. “On Pakistan Day, they can invite whom they want,” was Rajnath’s reaction.

The Opposition however, found it convenient to lash out, stating that India needed no intermediaries to carry out bilateral discussions with Pakistan.

Love thy neighbour? With Kashmir proving to be the fence neither country is willing to climb, Islamabad and New Delhi are from feeling that neighborly affection, just yet.

(With inputs from Muhammad Mukaram)