On Friday afternoon, demise news of former interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma, who was asked to deliver peace after the fallout of 2016 unrest, saddened all those who saw him as master negotiator appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2017. An officer of repute in India’s premier intelligence agency, IB, Dineshwar was tasked to initiate talks with the elected representatives of Jammu and Kashmir, political parties, different organisations and people. This initiative was Modi government’s move to start a dialogue in J&K with an aim to bring peace to the Valley. He was given rank equivalent to that of a Cabinet Secretary. Dineshwar was born in Bihar and was Kerala-Cadre Indian Police Service officer of the 1979 batch. He was appointed as the IB chief in 2014 and had experience of handling issues like separatism and insurgencies to regional and domestic politics. He attended training on Intelligence work and Policing methods in East Germany, Poland, Israel and South Korea. Apart from this, he has also worked with the National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval during his earlier stint as IB chief. Interestingly, Sharma had first qualified for the Indian Forest Service and later for IPS. During his tenure as head of IB, he was asked to investigate the fledgling modules of the Islamic State (IS) in Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in 2015 and he advocated a policy of counselling and reforming potential Islamic State recruits instead of arresting them. He was an officer who had penchant for thinking out of the box solution. President Ram Nath Kovind called him an outstanding police officer whose expertise in internal security was particularly noteworthy. Paying tributes PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah described him as long lasting contributor to India's policing and security apparatus. He handled many sensitive counter insurgency operations during his policing career. Sharma was appointed as the administrator of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep in October 2019. He was appointed as the Government of India representative for peace talks with various groups in northeastern states on May 30, 2017. Subsequently, on October 25, 2017, he was appointed as the Centre's interlocutor for holding dialogue with the elected representatives, various organisations and individuals concerned in Jammu and Kashmir. Sharma was awarded the prestigious Indian Police Medal for the meritorious service in 1997 followed by the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2003. Sharma was the latest in a long line of Kashmir interlocutors appointed by successive governments. They include ex Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N. Vohra; and a team of three comprising academic Radha Kumar, civil servant M.M. Ansari and the late journalist Dileep Padgaonkar.