NEW DELHI: Senior Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has written a `secret’ letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, local reports said on Wednesday, setting off speculation whether the veteran hardliner has offered Islamabad a way out of the impasse in talks with India.

Reports said a three-member delegation from the Hurriyat Conference belonging to the Geelani faction met Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit on Tuesday and handed over a letter for Nawaz Sharif.

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“We handed over Geelani sahab’s letter for PM Sharif to the officials at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi,” Ayaz Akbar, spokesperson for the Hurriyat Conference, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Geelani’s top aides — Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah and Altaf Ahmad — met Mr Basit at his office and stayed there for more than an hour.

“The letter is confidential but highly important,” Akbar told IANS.

“Officials at the high commission assured us that the letter will be dispatched to the Pakistan Prime Minister on Wednesday,” Akbar said.

This was the first time Hurriyat members met the Pakistani envoy after the National Security Adviser (NSA)-level talks in New Delhi were called off by Pakistan. Geelani was slated to have a one-to-one conversation with Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz if the latter came for the talks.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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