Mirwaiz a ‘big player’: Former RAW chief Dulat

Srinagar: Stating that Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is a ‘big’ player and will always remain relevant by virtue of his position, platform and constituency, former Research and Analysis wing chief A.S. Dulat confirmed that he met Mirwaiz at Delhi few days ago and asked him to hold dialogue with India on Kashmir at the earliest.

Talking to KNS, Dulat claimed that Mirwaiz is very keen to have dialogue on Kashmir and that the response of his faction of Hurriyat has always remained positive for talks.

Dulat further stated that he always wanted Hurriyat to take the stand of its own and participate in the dialogue process on Kashmir. “The movement they (Hurriyat) take any position, they get into trouble, sometimes one becomes upset and another pats their back.”

Saying the agenda based dialogue is proving problematic both for the Hurriyat and for New Delhi, Dulat said that the political groups in valley must give priority to dialogue first and that result shall come out only after that.

“The problem is of the agenda. Agenda based dialogue is difficult at this time but I can say that agenda will emerge during the talks.” The former Research and Analysis wing chief stated that Mirwaiz has the strong foothold in Kashmir and that his participation in dialogue will be most important.

“Mirwaiz is an important figure. He has the strong following in Kashmir because of the platform he has.” Dulat further said that Mirwaiz has remained very keen that Kashmir issue must be addressed at the earliest and his response to the dialogue has always remained very positive.

While commenting over the recent statement of Hurriyat (G) Syed Ali Geelani wherein he had stated that gun could be an option for the resolution of Kashmir issue, Dulat said that speculations galore about the timing of such statement from the desk of the aged separatist.

“When Syed Sall-ud-Din says this, that could have the different meaning but when Geelani sahib says this, I don’t know has he done this on somebody’s advice or it is his frustration.”

Dulat said that the ‘frustration’ could arise because Geelani has seen that four different groups of Kashmir have been given the equal importance when they met Sartaj Aziz in Delhi in the recent past.

“Geelani sahib probably thinks that he is the Ammer-ul-Mumineen (commander of faithful), and when he saw that other political groups of Kashmir have been given importance as they met Sartaj Aziz, this could have made him upset and he issued the statement wherein he termed gun as an option.”

Stating that Geelani should realize the ground situation of the present time, Dulat said that Geelani must understand that it is not 1990. “You had the international support at that time and people used to call gunmen freedom fighters but in today’s world gunmen are called terrorists and there is no support to the gun in the present world order.”