The Centre's newly appointed special representative to Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, said on Wednesday that he aims to talk to a younger generation of Kashmiris in order to understand their problems and find a way of resolving them. This apart, he said, he also aims to try and meet Hurriyat leaders.
On the last day of his Kashmir visit, Sharma told that he was "very much satisfied" with his maiden visit to the Valley, and would try to make every effort to meet the Hurriyat leaders during his next visit, which is slated for the last week of November. He will be arriving in Jammu on Thursday and will stay in the state's winter capital for two days before winding up his five-day visit.
Sharma was appointed by the central government on 23 October to hold "peace talks" and a "sustained dialogue" with the Valley's separatist leadership, in order to bring about normalcy to the state.
Close to a 100 people have been killed in violent clashes following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July last year, and thousands more are injured, many of them permanently disabled for life.
A campaign launched by security forces to wipe out the militants, who had joined different outfits after the killing of Wani, has left more than 170 dead, the highest in the last decade. At the same time, recruitment of youth into militancy is also at its highest level in the last seven years.
Sources said that most of the people who met the interlocutor over the last three days, including 15 delegations on Monday, 37 on Tuesday, and eight on Wednesday had expressed concerns over news channels trying to vitiate the atmosphere in the Valley and creating an atmosphere of hatred towards Kashmiris outside the state.
"I agree, and some channels have done a lot of damage to Kashmir," Sharma told a delegation of youth from Srinagar, who met him in Srinagar on Tuesday.