By NNN-PTI,
Srinagar, India : An all-party meeting on the Amarnath land issue was chaired by Home Minister Shivraj Patil here today.
It was attended by Arun Jaitley (BJP), Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party), former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and Saif-ud-din Soz and Mohsina Kidwai (both Cong) besides local Kashmiri leaders.
The meeting comes a day after leaders of Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation in Jammu, held their first round of talks with an all party delegation headed by Patil. No headway was made as they stuck to their demand for restoration of land to Amarnath shrine board and removal of Governor N N Vohra.
While Patil had yesterday given an assurance that their demands would be looked into, the Samiti had rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call for suspension of agitation.
Hectic behind the scene activities had preceded the talks with the Samiti refusing to talk to the all party delegation because of the presence of three Kashmiri leaders–Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Saif-ud-din Soz.
They had relented after the three leaders along with Vohra kept away from the talks saying they would not like to be a hurdle.