Omar Abdullah welcomes VK Singh remark

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah said on Monday that the BJP government at the Centre has “thankfully” admitted that calling off talks with Pakistan on the pretext of its New Delhi-based envoy’s meeting with separatist leaders was the wrong move to make.

“We said at that time that calling off talks with Pakistan and arresting the Hurriyat leaders is wrong,” he said, adding that he, however, welcomes Union minister of state for external affairs Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd)’s statement that Hurriyat leaders, just like other citizens of the country, have every right to meet people of other countries within India.

“This is what we had been stating from day one, that the Centre’s position on this was wrong and calling off talks with Pakistan over Hurriyat leaders meeting Pakistani diplomats was wrong and a gross overreaction,” Mr Abdullah told reporters here.

He added, “We’re glad better sense has finally prevailed and the Central government has corrected itself.”

Earlier on Monday, Mr Singh said in a written reply to Parliament that there is no bar on meetings of separatist leaders with representatives of any country in India.

Meanwhile, separatist leader Shabir Ahmed Shah has strongly reacted to Mr Singh’s assertion that Hurriyat Conference leaders are Indian citizens. Terming it “illogical”, Mr Shah said neither the people of J&K nor the “resistance leaders” are Indian citizens.

“V.K. Singh’s remarks are misleading. He should to go through history and know the facts about Kashmir and its people,” Mr Shah said in a statement.