Hurriyat leaders 'unwilling' to talk to us: Yechury

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary and member of all-party delegation Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said Hurriyat leaders were unwilling to hold talks with the delegation members.

"We met Mirwaiz Umar Farooq; we met Shabir Shah; and then we met professor Abdul Gani Bhat; the leaders of Hurriyat, all of them, said they had decided not to talk on the issue," Yechury told the media here.

Yechury also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement during an interview that 'vishwas' (confidence) and 'vikas' is needed to for the restive Kashmir".

"Prime Minister Modi talks about vikas and vishwas, we first need to generate vishwas, and in order to do that, at least fulfil those promises that were made earlier, only then vishwas can be built," he said.

Apart from Yechury, Janata Dal (United) member Sharad Yadav, CPI leader D. Raja and CPI (M) MLA Yousuf Tarigami, all of them parts of the all-party delegation, had gone to meet the separatist leaders.

Earlier today, the separatists rejected Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's invitation for talks with the all-party delegation.

This came after Mehbooba appealed to all separatist leaders and other organizations to take the lead and engage with the all-party delegation.