India Steps Up Shuttle Diplomacy in Kashmir
Officials said hard-line Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani and Defense Minister Jaswant Singh would attend a security meeting at the weekend in Srinagar, the summer capital of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.
Domestic media reports said the two ministers would review the situation in the Kashmir valley at the meeting of a unified command which comprises the army, paramilitary and state police set up to put down the revolt.
India had invited a broad range of social and political groups from Jammu and Kashmir fro talks -- including those opposed to Indian rule. Nearly a dozen militant groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir.
The unprecedented cease-fire, launched in November and extended until the end of May, has been rejected by militant groups who have unleashed a wave of attacks on security installations across the Himalayan region.
Talks have made little progress with Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the all parties Hurriyat (Freedom) conference, which said the Indian initiative was "a train going nowhere", unless Pakistan was included.
The government's point man, Krishan Chander Pant, who is spearheading the peace dialogue sent a letter to a senior Kashmir separatist leader in response to queries about the talks, Reuters quoted an official as saying on Tuesday.
The contents of the letter to Shabir Ahmed Shah, head of the Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, were not revealed and Shah said his group would meet on Wednesday to discuss the government's reply.
Shah, who is outside the Hurriyat fold, said earlier this month that he wanted the Indian government to clarify whether the talks were aimed at resolving the "basic issue of Kashmir."
Suspected separatist guerrillas last week attacked Shah's office with a grenade after warning him against taking part in peace talks with India.
An aide to Pant, who is also the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and a former federal minister, said he planned to meet Shah soon.