July 14, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1424

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SRINAGAR, July 13: Chairman of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference on Sunday said he was against US mediation between Pakistan and India to resolve their dispute over the region.

“I am dead against mediation by the United States between India and Pakistan in getting the issue of Kashmir resolved,” Maulana Abbas Ansari said here.

Previous Hurriyat leaders had repeatedly called for US mediation, but Ansari said it would show India and Pakistan were “impotent” and unable to resolve issues.

“And if the US gives a roadmap to resolve the Kashmir issue it will not be good for India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir,” he added.

If the US did succeed in resolving Kashmir, it would always be able to boast of “doing a great favour to all three parties.”

Maulana Ansari said India, Pakistan and Kashmiris could resolve the issue without the help of outsiders. “I am very much optimistic if we ... India, Pakistan and Kashmiris sit to discuss the issue, we will definitely negotiate a solution,” he said.

“Even if the US intervenes we will have to sit and talk. So let’s do it ourselves,” he said.

Maulana Ansari said the Hurriyat would talk to the Indian government if invited to do so by the Indian premier.

“We will talk to Vajpayee if he invites us,” he said, “We believe in highest-level dialogue.”

Earlier this year India appointed a new pointman on Kashmir, N.N. Vohra, but no separatist leader has agreed to talk to him.

Ansari said a solution to Kashmir had to be carved out by India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership.

“Bilateral talks, either between India and Pakistan or between New Delhi and Kashmiris, have failed in the past,” he said.

“We can’t have a durable solution by sidelining Pakistan,” he told AFP.

APP adds: Maulana Ansari called for initiating a bus service between Rawalpindi and Srinagar, saying the issue was not a border dispute but a humanitarian one. He was welcoming the resumption of the Lahore-New Delhi bus service here.

The Kashmir Media Service quoted him as saying: “If India is serious about solving the Kashmir issue, a similar bus service should be started Between Rawalpindi and Srinagar to allow the divided families meet each other,” Ansari said.