| Once again, it was an abortive attempt. The much hyped all-Kashmir round-table conference chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on February 25 lost much of its sheen because of the boycott by prominent separatist leaders, including those who are otherwise engaged in a dialogue with the Government. Kashmiri separatist forces suddenly developed cold feet and the scepticism caught on like an infection, spreading across both the hardline and moderate factions. Cynicism was palpable in the separatist camp, bordering on the pathological aversion its leadership has always had for mainstream politicians in Kashmir. "You can't expect us to sit across a table and discuss Kashmir and its future with politicians who are committed to the state's accession with India." This refrain was as much true of the so-called moderate and accommodating Shabir Ahmed Shah of the Democratic Freedom Party as it was of Mohammad Yasin Malik of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who doesn't mince words while talking of "the betrayal of Kashmiri people by the traditional leadership of Kashmir". To make matters worse, the credibility of the round-table took a hard knock with the gunning down of four village youths in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on February 22. The slain-aged between eight and 23 years-were, according to the people of Dudipora, killed while playing cricket. Later, in a damage control exercise, senior government and army officers issued statements that belied logic as each contradicted the previous official version of the incident. Immediately after the entire Valley, including Srinagar, was engulfed in mass protests, the first official statement claimed the four had been killed in an encounter between the armed forces and militants.  | Shadow of death
The killing of children as young as eight has triggered an outcry. | | | JULY 21, 2005: Parvaiz Ahmed Dar, 15, of Aastanpora, Pulwama. | | JULY 23, 2005: Bilal Ahmad Sheikh, 13; Wasim Ahmed Wani, 11; and Shabir Ahmed Shah, 13, of Badergund, Kupwara. | | OCTOBER 28, 2005: Sajad Ahmed Badru, 22, of Dooru, Anantnag. | | NOVEMBER 12, 2005: Ajaz Ahmed Dar, Class XII student of Pattan, Baramulla. | | FEBRUARY 22, 2006: Amir Akbar, 8; Ghulam Hassan Bhat, 19; Shakil Ahmed Wani, 10; and Samad Mir, 23. Residents of Dudipora. | | With villagers refusing to bury the bodies, the general officer commanding (GOC) of the army's north Kashmir counter-insurgent headquarter Kilo Force, Maj. Gen. N.K. Singh, said: "One of the four persons, Samad Mir, was killed by militants during the course of a cordon-and-search operation. Mir was an activist of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the militants, in all probability, had suspected him of acting as an informer of the security forces. An eight-year-old boy, who was standing close to Mir, was also killed because of the militant firing." The GOC also said the two other youth had died later in an encounter between the armed forces and holed up militants. This is not the first time the army revealed the identity of a militant after he had been killed in an operation. The same day, GOC of the army's 15 Corps Lt Gen. S.S. Dhillon held a press briefing at the Badami Bagh headquarters where he refuted allegations of the young men having been gunned down while playing cricket. Dhillon also said the army had only fired 27 bullets during the operation at Dudipora. Meanwhile, explaining his boycott of the round-table, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, chairman of a faction of the Hurriyat Conference, asserted that though the level of overall violence had come down, the Government "had not done enough by way of easing tension on the ground". On his part, Malik spurned the invitation for participation in the event on the ground that "a dialogue without a format is like talking in a vacuum". Ironically, one of the biggest protagonists of Kashmir's accession with India, former chief minister and patron of the National Conference (NC) Farooq Abdullah also excused himself from the event. While accepting the finality of his son and party president Omar Abdullah's decision to participate, a dejected senior Abdullah said in Srinagar: "What would they be talking at the round-table? What sort of an autonomy are we talking about? My government adopted an autonomy resolution which was sent to the Centre for consideration. They trashed it without even reading it. Later, we were told that the farthest they were prepared to go on Kashmir autonomy was change in the nomenclature-from governor to sadr-e-riyasat (president of the state) and from chief minister to wazir-e-azam (prime minister). Well, if that's the autonomy we're going to discuss, I would personally prefer to stay out." Political observers in Kashmir believe the PMO acted in haste in inviting separatist leaders to a joint meeting as the on going one-on-one dialogue with them is still at a preliminary stage. Moreover, given that the meeting was convened close on the heels of US President George W. Bush's visit to India, it fuelled suspicion in the separatist camp that the conference could be just the "photo session" Delhi needed to convince Washington about its "seriousness" to resolve the Kashmir dispute. Even as so-called moderates like Mirwaiz Omar Farooq openly express cynicism over their dialogue with Delhi, chairman of a splinter group of the Hurriyat Conference defiant Syed Ali Shah Geelani's one line "India can't be trusted" is becoming almost a war cry for the separatist camp. One of the most vocal supporters of debate and discussion with Delhi, Sajjad Gani Lone of Peoples' Conference also did not attend the round-table meet. This has led to a scenario wherein the operating space for the so-called moderates is shrinking only to be engulfed by the growing clout of the so-called hardliners like Geelani.
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