New Delhi: Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre’s special representative for dialogue on Kashmir, will embark on a five-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir from November 6 to hold talks with various stakeholders in the state, officials said on Thursday.
Sharma, a former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, will spend three days in the Kashmir Valley, while the remaining period will be used for talks with Governor N N Vohra, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and other delegations in Jammu.
In Srinagar, he is expected to meet various political leaders, student groups and youths.
The Joint Resistance Forum, a conglomerate of three separatist organisations — the hardline and moderate factions of the Hurriyat Conference and the JKLF — had announced earlier this week that they would not meet Sharma and dubbed his appointment a “time-buying tactic” of the Centre.
The National Conference, the state’s main opposition party, also feels that the exercise of meeting Sharma may not yield much results in the view of the statements made by central leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had flayed talks of Kashmir’s autonomy.
However, senior party leaders feel that the government should send Sharma with a clear mind whether the entire process was for ensuring peace in the valley or simply a time-pass.
The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had passed a resolution in July, 2000 for granting more autonomy to the state within the ambit of the Constitution.
The former Intelligence Bureau chief has already listed that in his new role, he would like to counter false sloganeering and propaganda available online and ensure that the youth and students become a party in the peace process.
“I am going to the valley with no blinkers on. I am willing to meet every common person who has a genuine grievance,” he had said.
The 1979-batch IPS officer of the Kerala cadre, who rose to the prestigious post of the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, was recently appointed as the Centre’s representative for sustained dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir.
Hailing from Bihar, Sharma has said that he has an emotional attachment with Kashmir as it was his first field posting way back in 1992.