Grenade attack mars Kashmir talks

By Mukhtar Ahmad
Special to CNN

SRINAGAR, Kashmir -- Militants have attacked the headquarters of Kashmir’s separatist All Parties Huriyat Conference(APHC) with a handgrenade in the capital Srinagar, injuring three people.

The raid comes in the wake of reported differences of opinion among the various groups as to whether the APHC should engage in talks with New Delhi about the future of Kashmir.

The 23-member general council of the APHC was in closed-door discussions at its headquarters, discussing whether the group should respond positively to the Indian offer of unconditional talks, when the office was attacked.

Police sources said the grenade exploded on the lawn of the APHC headquarters seriously injuring four people, including three activists of the awami action committee(AAC), a constituent of the conglomerate.

“We don’t know who is responsible. But we strongly condemn it,” said Shiekh Abdul Rashid, spokesman of the Huriyat. He said the injured had been taken to hospital where one is serious.

“The meeting continued despite the attack,” the shiekh said. The explosion triggered panic inside the headquarters.

The APHC was created as a separatist political combine in 1993 to provide a political platform for the underground armed struggle against New Delhi.

In November last year, the Indian government responded by announcing unilateral cessation of combat operations against separatist militants in Kashmir.

Five months later K.C.Pant became the Indian interlocutor for an unconditional dialogue with various parties in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The attack on the headquarters came just a few hours after a senior Indian paramilitary border security force officer and five guards were critically wounded in a powerful landmine explosion in the northern town of Bandipore, 50 miles from Srinagar in the Barramullah district.

No group has claimed responsibility.

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