Srinagar, Oct 14 (PTI) The hardline Hurriyat Conference today described the Centre's appointment of a 3-member team of interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir as a futile exercise while the moderate faction said a Parliamentary panel would have been an appropriate forum to reach out to the people.
"This is a futile exercise. The Government of India is acting like a deaf and dumb," Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of the hardline Hurriyat faction, told reporters here.
He was reacting to the appointment of journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, Prof Radha Kumar and Information Commissioner M M Ansari as Centre's interlocutors to hold talks with all shades of opinion, including separatists, in the state.
Geelani said no dialogue could be held for resolution of the Kashmir issue unless the Centre acts on the five-point proposal mooted by him in August this year for normalisation of situation in the Valley.