Don't engage in talks with Delhi, Farooq tells separatists

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Lok Sabha member and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has advised separatists not to engage in talks with the Centre, saying they will get nothing.

"They did not give us autonomy which is guaranteed by the Constitution, what will they give you?" the elder Abdullah told the separatists in an interview with the widely read "Greater Kashmir" daily newspaper.

The National Conference President also said that the central government was not sincere while speaking of a dialogue with the separatists.

"It is simply a fill in the blanks exercise. There is pressure on India from the world that Kashmir must be normalized.

"It is a trap. Don't fall into it. Talk only when India comes up with a concrete proposal," Farooq Abdullah said in his message to the separatists.

"Don't talk for the sake of talks. I don't think they (BJP) are ready to give you (separatist) anything. They are not sincere in their intentions. They want to drag them to the table only to discredit them," he cautioned the separatists, some of those top leaders are either in jail or are confined to their homes in Srinagar.

The separatists have so far not come up with any positive indication that they would be engaging in a dialogue process with New Delhi.

Kashmiri separatist leaders including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik have said that New Delhi must identify the contours of the dialogue process so that a categorical stand can be taken by the separatists on the offer.

--IANS

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