The All-party delegation that visited Kashmir in the aftermath of the two-month long unrest in the Valley met with shut doors by Kashmiri separatists. The group of leaders walked into a damp welcome as the separatist leaders adopted a rather tough stance against them. Hardline Hurriyat chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has been under house arrest since July, flatly refused to meet with Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Sharad Yadav, and Jay Prakash Narayan. The leaders were instead, put face to face with an angry slogan-shouting group of Geelani's supporters outside his house.
Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik rebuffed the parliamentarians when they went to meet him at a police station where he is kept under detention. Malik told them that he would talk to them when he visits Delhi, saying "You see the situation outside. What can we talk about in such a situation?" Former moderate Hurriyat Conference chief Abdul Ghani Bhat received the parliamentarians, but informed them about the boycott decided to take against them. He termed the visit a "futile exercise", adding that nothing concrete would happen unless India talked to Pakistan.
The separatists had earlier rejected chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's invitation to meet with the delegation. Releasing a statement, Geelani, Malik, and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said, "These deceitful methods of crisis management through parliamentary delegations and track-two only prolong the sufferings of the people and cannot take the place of a genuine transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue of the people's right to self-determination." The statement added that nobody was more aware than Mehbooba that the "Indian war machine is on a spree to kill, maim and disfigure an entire population into complete submission for demanding freedom."
The delegation comprising of 30 people from 20 parties, arrived in Srinagar to hold talks with representatives of mainstream parties and was led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Ex-chief minister Omar Abdullah did meet the leaders and said such efforts have lost their credibility as there has been hardly any follow after similar previous visits.
Reacting to the rebuff, Singh said the reaction showed they did not believe in democracy. "Some members of the delegation wanted to visit the Hurriyat leaders. We neither said yes nor did we say no. But if some wanted to talk to them and they refused, this implies that they did not believe in insaniyat, Kashmiriyat, and jamhooriyat." He said that while they were willing to have talks, the offer was available to only those who believed the Valley was an integral part of India. He added, "There should be no doubt that Jammu and Kashmir has remained, will remain and continue to remain an integral part of India."
"I don't want to go into Track I, Track II, and Track III dialogue, we want to talk to all those stakeholders of Kashmir valley." Meanwhile, fresh curfew was imposed in the area, as separatists extended their protest shutdown till September 8. A senior police official said, "Curfew has been imposed in areas falling under the jurisdiction of Nowhatta and MR Gunj police stations in Srinagar city along with Baramulla."
