Govt sees hope for political outreach in all-party delegation

The government is seeing a ray of hope in all-party delegation to engage with a variety of stakeholders for establishing the elusive political outreach and restore normalcy in Kashmir.

Sources said that several social, economic, academic and civil rights organisations that had refused to meet Union home minister Rajnath Singh during his Srinagar visit twice have agreed to meet the all- party delegation. These include Kashmir Chamber of Commerce, Kashmir Economic Forum, Writers' Forum and Kashmir High Court Bar Association.

There is a possibility that some senior members of the delegation may visit moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF leader Yaseen Malik, said sources adding that efforts are being made by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's office to bring maximum stakeholders on the table to dilute the influence of resistance groups led by hardliner Hurriyat leader SAS Geelani.

The government is hoping to take about 40-odd senior leaders from mainstream national parties to Srinagar on September 4 and 5. An informal preparatory meeting of all the visiting MPs will be held in the Parliament House on September 3 where Rajnath Singh and parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar will also be present. The delegation will leave for Srinagar in Air India chartered flight at 8:30am on September 4 and return on September 5 evening.

The delegation may have a stopover in Jammu for a couple of hours on its way back and hold talks with some stakeholder groups of Jammu region.