The team, which includes former bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah, who has served in Jammu and Kashmir, former Indian Air Force Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, journalist Bharat Bhushan and activist Sushobha Barve straight away drove to Geelani’s residence in Hyderpora from the airport.
The meeting lasted more than an hour. Sinha said the talks happened in a cordial atmosphere.
Interestingly, Geelani, who heads the hardline faction of separatist Hurriyat Conference, agreed to meet and talk to the Sinha-led delegation. The delegation members were seen entering the highly fortified house where Geelani has been kept under detention for over three months.
The octogenarian separatist had on September 4 shut the door on Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and other non-BJP MPs who were part of an all-party delegation on a visit to Kashmir.
Sinha and his team members are also expected to meet other separatist leaders, including moderate Hurriyat head Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yaseen Malik.
And after two months of detention at a guest house-turned-jail in Srinagar, Farooq is now under house arrest at his upscale Nigeen residence. Malik has also been moved from jail to a Srinagar hospital after his health deteriorated.
Sinha said he and other “people of goodwill” will try to “meet all” during their visit.
“We came here for humanity. Our motto is to share the grievances and pain (of Kashmiri people). I hope the state of unrest will be resolved soon,” Sinha said.
Talking to reporters, the former external affair and finance minister hinted that it was an independent initiative and that they were “not here as a part of any delegation.”
The fresh bid to break ice between the separatist groups and the government comes after 108 days of unrest and shutdown that have disrupted life in the Kashmir Valley since the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.
At least 92 people were killed and over 12,000 injured in clashes between protesters and security forces.
Police have arrested over 7,000 suspected ring leaders of stone throwers. Some have been let off.
Sinha and his team are also expected to meet civil society and trade groups including the Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) and the Kashmir Centre for Social and Developmental Studies (KCSDS).
They will call on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor N N Vohra.
In New Delhi, the BJP distanced itself from the meeting, saying the party had nothing to do with it.
“It is not a BJP delegation. The BJP has nothing to do with this,” the party’s national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
Reports that it was a BJP delegation were absolutely wrong, Sharma said, adding Sinha too has said that he took up the initiative in his personal capacity.
lSeven women were injured yesterday in heavy shelling of Border Security Force (BSF) and civilian targets along the international border in R S Pura Sector of Jammu district by Pakistan Rangers, police said.
