By IANS,
Jammu: Offering his open support to separatist leaders willing to enter into dialogue for a resolution to the Kashmir issue, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Thursday hailed separatist leader Moulvi Abbas Ansari’s talks with interlocutors and urged others to emulate the move.
Omar who has been asking separatists to enter into dialogue with the centre-appointed interlocutors — noted journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, strategic affairs expert Radha Kumar and economist M.M. Ansari — Thursday asked separatist leaders to follow Moulvi Abbas Ansari, who had met the interlocutors in Srinagar Wednesday.
He was talking to media on the sidelines of a police function in Udhampur, 66 km north of Jammu.
“Abbas Ansari has taken a bold step, others should follow it. When everyone is in agreement that guns offer no solution then the only option left is dialogue. Ansari has shown the path, others should walk on it,” he said urging other separatists who have been refusing to meet the interlocutors.
The Hurriyat Conference (moderate) suspended Ansari from the separatist conglomerate in retaliation to his meeting the interlocutors.
The chief minister, however, refused to comment on the expulsion of Ansari from the Hurriyat Conference, saying: “I have nothing to say on this.”