'Centre should engage all political opinions for talks'

The Centre should resume talks with "all shades" of political opinion in Jammu and Kashmir and delink terrorism with the dialogue process with Pakistan, participants of a conference demanded today.

"Terrorism should be delinked from dialogue process between India and Pakistan and it should not come in its way of resumption (of talks)," programme director of an NGO, Sushobha Barve told reporters.

The conference 'Kashmir: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead' organised by Delhi-based Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) was attended by over 60 delegates from Jammu and Kashmir, rest of India and Pakistan.

The speakers said attaching conditions to the dialogue would only strengthen the hands of those working against talks.

"The civil society of both the countries are for continuation of dialogue," Barve said.

The participants urged both governments to ease restrictions on travel across the LoC and suggested that it should not be confined to divided families alone.

"All other traditional routes including Kargil-Skardu, Nowshehra-Khuiratta, Bandipora-Gurez-Glgit, Tatapani-Mendhal and Handwara and Nawkot and Chamb Jurian should also be opened for trade as well as travel," she said.