ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Pakistan on Monday maintained that “genuine” Kashmiri leaders had never excluded Islamabad from any negotiations on the Kashmir dispute with New Delhi.

Foreign office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said this when asked about a report from Srinagar suggesting that the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders, who held talks last week with a non-official team of Indian interlocutors on the issue, had expressed willingness to go ahead with negotiations with the Indian government.

The spokesman pointed out that the “genuine representatives” of Kashmir who had held talks with the Indian team headed by Ram Jethmalani had firmly stated that India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris had to be involved in negotiations to reach any settlement of the dispute. This, he added, was a position which the Hurriyat and Pakistan had always maintained.

The spokesman said there were about 58 Pakistanis in the American detention camp in Guantanamo Bay and expressed the belief that almost all of them were innocent.

He said the government would take up the question of their release with the American government as soon as it received report from the Pakistani officials who had visited the Cuban island for interrogating the detainees.

Referring to a European Union team of elections observers, the spokesman said the team, already in the country, was welcome to Pakistan and it did not require any formal invitation or any Memorandum of Understanding to carry out its assignment.

The spokesman assured that the security of the EU observers was being taken care of by the authorities concerned in the same normal manner as that for any other foreign visitors to the country.

In reply to a question, he said a misunderstanding had arisen because of a statement attributed to EU team leader John Cushnahan about the electoral process to which the government had sharply reacted. However, he added, after a subsequent statement by Mr Cushnahan that his task was to observe the polls and in no way he intended to interfere with the electoral process the matter had been resolved. But, the spokesman wondered, why did not these foreign teams visit occupied Kashmir to observe farcical elections there and report their findings in the same manner as on events in Pakistan.

His comments were sought on a statement by the American general leading the anti-terrorist campaign against Al Qaeda fighters that up to 1,000 of those extremists were operating from adjoining sanctuaries in Pakistan thus making it complicated for him to pursue the Osama supporters. Rejecting the statement by Lt-Gen Dan McNeill, the spokesman recalled that Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider had already refuted the general’s assertion. Mr Haider had emphasized that Pakistan’s security network was unbreachable and no Al Qaeda terrorist had been able to enter Pakistan.

Asked how could one determine the veracity of the two statements, the spokesman said that Mr Haider was the interior minister who should know better about these things in the country.

The spokesman said that about 11 Pakistanis detained in Afghanistan had been unfortunately killed recently in an attempted jail-break. He said the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul was in contact with the Afghan officials for the early release of about another 800 Pakistanis detained there.

He recalled that President Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Kabul sometime back had been assured by President Hamid Karzai that the Pakistanis would soon be released and repatriated.