Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday praised moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and claimed the separatist leadership was ready for talks in what appeared to be an olive branch since the administration cracked down hard on the pro-azadi camp early this year.

Malik’s public endorsement came a day after the leader of the moderate separatist faction had cautioned against the growing drug menace in the Valley.

“I am happy that yesterday (Friday) Mirwaiz Molvi Umar Farooq spoke about drugs. Drugs are a very big menace here and are spreading fast among the children,” Malik told an event in Srinagar.

Malik also claimed credit for the purported improvement in the situation since he took over the reins last year, when the state was brought under central rule.

“I am very happy, the mercury (violence) has dropped significantly since the day I took over. You must have seen that the Hurriyat, which once shut the door on Ram Vilas Paswan when he came knocking, are now ready for talks. This is an encouraging sign,” he said. “There is a change in everything. Stone-throwing after Friday prayers has almost stopped.”

The reference was to Paswan’s outreach to Hurriyat leaders at the peak of the 2016 summer unrest. Hurriyat hard-liner Syed Ali Shah Geelani had not opened the door of his house to welcome Paswan when the central leader approached him.

Malik’s comments come at a time many separatist leaders, including J&K Liberation Front chief Mohammad Yasin Malik, are in jail, imprisoned since the administration cracked down on the pro-azadi camp following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack.

The Mirwaiz had on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Imran Khan to make serious efforts towards resolving the Kashmir issue for permanent peace in the region.

“It is my fervent appeal to the Prime Ministers of both countries… how long should we shoulder the coffins of the young and the old? The mandate the people of Pakistan and India gave to the heads of the two nations calls for an end to the bloodshed in Kashmir and for that there is need for a sustained dialogue with the active participation of the people of Kashmir,” he had said during Friday prayers at Jamia mosque. The Mirwaiz also said the Hurriyat was ready to act as a bridge between the two countries.

A close aide of Yasin Malik said there was nothing new in the Mirwaiz’s remarks as the Hurriyat’s moderate faction has been calling for talks for a long time. “We want meaningful talks for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. Once talks start, all the issues will come up one by one, including the release of all leaders who have been illegally arrested,” he said.

The last time the Hurriyat had held talks with the Centre was in 2004, when too an NDA government was in power. In 2005, it had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but there were no formal discussions. The talks have been deadlocked since.

The Hurriyat faction led by the Mirwaiz had also backed out of secret talks initiated by then home minister P. Chidambaram in 2009 after a leader, Fazal Haq Qureshi, was attacked by militants.

The hardline faction led by Geelani supports talks but wants the Centre to declare Kashmir a disputed territory among other demands.

Governor Malik claimed the Centre was working to bring militants back to the mainstream. “We don’t like it at all that a youth is dying. We want to bring him back (from militancy). There is a lot of thinking in the Centre how to get him back,” he said.

“But if they fire bullets, there won’t be bouquets for them from the other side,” he added. “There will be a bullet for a bullet.”