Amid tight security, a number of delegations on Tuesday called on Government of India appointed Interlocutor for Kashmir Mr. Dineshwar Sharma at Bandipora, north of Kashmir.
This is the sixth Kashmir visit of Sharma since his appointment on October 23 last year. The Dineshwar Sharma’s visit is amid senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani last week again rejected the fresh offer for talks by centre's special representative.
The former Intelligence Bureau director Sharma as per the sources started his itinerary by meeting youth delegations in Bandipora and will leave for Jammu after that to meet various groups and individuals for the next two days. Last year, on October 23, for the first time after coming to power the Narendra Modi led union government appointed an interlocutor to hold talks with stake-holders of Jammu and Kashmir.
The announcement was made by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi. During his visits to the Valley, Mr Sharma's main focus was south Kashmir, which has witnessed major encounters and protests since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Burhan Wani in 2016. On October 31, breaking the silence over the appointment of Kashmir interlocutor by Government of India Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising of Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Fraooq and Muhammmad Yasin Malik ruling out the talks with Sharma termed the appointment “nothing more than a tactic” after its “failure” of “military repression”.