Kashmiri separatists were set for a second round of talks here yesterday with India's deputy prime minister aimed at ending 15 years of insurrection in Indian Kashmir.
The separatists said topping their agenda would be demands for an end to alleged human rights abuses by security forces and the freeing of prisoners as signals of good faith by New Delhi to help bring the conflict to a close.
"We'll ask for an end to human rights violations and release of prisoners," Umar Farooq, one of the four-man delegation and founder of the main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, said prior to the talks.
The dialogue due to start later yesterday between the moderate separates and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, began in January. It is the first between the two sides since the revolt against New Delhi's rule erupted in 1989 in the Muslim-majority region.
New Delhi has cleared the way for 10 political detainees to be released as a goodwill gesture and to keep the talks on track, on top of 69 already freed since January, media reports said.
"We've already released 69. The sincerity of the government cannot be doubted on this," The Indian Express quoted yesterday an unnamed government official as saying. The separatists say there are at least 1,500 prisoners they want released.
However, the government was unlikely to agree to a separatist request for a reduction of security forces in the violence-ridden Himalayan region ahead of next month's national elections, the reports said.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday hailed warming ties with Pakistan and called for the Kashmir issue, which sparked of two of three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors, to finally be resolved.
"Let's talk about Kashmir and settle that. That's the only way the problem can be resolved. There's no other way out," he told a rally. "It's now time the two countries use their resources for development [rather than for fighting]."
Shiite cleric Maulana Abbas Ansari will lead the separatists' team at the talks
They had threatened to pull out of the talks, saying Advani had reneged on promises to end rights abuses but later agreed to resume them.
The separatists want the region, held in part by India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both, folded into Pakistan or for it to become independent.
The talks come as Hurriyat has split between moderates who favour dialogue with New Delhi and hardliners who oppose it.
India says the conflict has claimed some 40,000 lives. The separatists say the toll is at least 80,000.
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