PM calls all-party Kashmir conclave

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called an all-party meeting on the Kashmir issue.

He will hold talks with Kashmiri leaders and separatists in a fresh bid to resolve the dispute over the region.

For the first time, Kashmiri leaders from different political factions and the Indian government would sit at the same table since the outbreak of the insurgency in Kashmir in 1989.

Kashmiri separatists have been demanding tripartite talks involving India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people.

Last year in September, the Prime Minister held his first direct talks with a faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

PM's roundtable conference with the Kashmiri leaders and separatists will a fresh bid to resolve the decades-old dispute over the region, his office said.

"The Prime Minister is going to hold a roundtable conference with Kashmir leaders," an official from Singh's office said, but declined to elaborate.

A list of around 50 people, including representatives of main Kashmiri political parties and separatist organisations, had been drawn up for invitation to the talks, government sources said.

No specific agenda had been drawn up for the meeting, to be held on February 24 in the Indian capital.

Reports said the meeting would mark the first time Kashmiri political leaders, separatists and the Indian government would sit at the same table since the outbreak of an anti-Indian Islamic insurgency in Kashmir in 1989.

"The PM wants to hear from all the participants with an open mind," the government sources said. "He is keen to seek cooperation from all the invitees for a return to normalcy."

Singh is scheduled to meet pro-independence separatist leader Yasin Malik on Friday. Last month, the Centre held talks with another separatist, Saajad Lone.

The series of talks follow Singh's decision to meet with all leaders and separatists from the Indian-administered zone of Kashmir, where some 44,000 lives have been lost since the start of the insurgency.

India accuses Pakistan of helping the insurgency in Kashmir, which has triggered two of their three wars since 1947.

Pakistan denies the charge but admits extending moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris waging what it terms a "freedom struggle".

India and Pakistan both claim the scenic Himalayan region in its entirety but administer it in part.

(With Agency Inputs)