Start unconditional talks with all Kashmir stakeholders: CPI-M

CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday urged the government to start an "unconditional dialogue" with all stakeholders, including separatists, for peace in Kashmir that is battling nearly two months of the deadliest unrest in years.

"The state and central governments have to take the political dialogue forward now. There will be no solution without a political dialogue. You have to start a political dialogue, an unconditional political with all stakeholders," Yechury told the media here.

Yechury spoke a day after some leaders from the all-party delegation of MPs, who had gone to meet separatist leaders, were snubbed.

Separatists refused to talk to the MPs who had gone in their individual capacity and not as a part of the delegation from Delhi.

The CPI-M leader, who was one of the MPs to try to meet Hurriyat leaders, said it was not a snub.

"They met us. Only one (Syed Ali Shah Geelani) didn't. However, they refused to speak on the Kashmir issue," Yechury said.

The team from Delhi met some 200 people of 30 delegations, including mainstream regional political parties, on the first day of its Kashmir visit.

The situation in the Valley continues to be tense amid recurring street protests, triggered by the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. At least 74 people have been killed and nearly 12,000 injured in the weeks of the unrest, the deadliest since 2010 when some 120 people died in firing by police and paramilitary troopers.