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JKLF offers 'help' to start Kashmir peace talks

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman and senior Hurriyat leader Yaseen Malik has offered "help" to start peace negotiations if the Centre was "serious" about restoration of peace in the state.

Malik said the JKLF leaders were even ready to go to Pakistan and initiate a dialogue with other militant leaders.

However, Malik said this could be possible only after the Centre provided him and his other associates with the travel documents.

Malik, who was talking on a television programme Janata Ki Adalat to be telecast on Sunday, welcomed the ceasefire but said "peace could not be created in vaccum" and what was needed was "sincere" efforts from New Delhi.

Equating Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee with slain Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Malik said, "If the efforts by the prime minister are sincere, he will be doing a great favour to the people of Kashmir like Rabin did by announcing peace, which restored happiness for Israel and Palestine people."

"Vajpayee is old, he is honest and if he can give permanent peace to the people of Kashmir in the twilight of his life, generations of Kashmiris will remember him for centuries to come," Malik said.

The JKLF leader said, "The initiative of restoring peace lies with prime minister and he should assert himself to achieve the goal."

Asked about the role of Pakistan in Kashmir issue, Malik said "Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf had a small role to play in the issue as compared to Vajpayee."

Despite the ceasefire announced by the Centre, no one from the government had contacted him as yet, he said.

"Our welcoming the ceasefire offer should not be mistaken as our weakness. We only want to see how determined the other side (Centre) is about the process," he added.

Asked about his views on the ceasefire, Malik expressed the hope that the Centre would extend it.

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