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SRINAGAR, Oct 7: Both factions of the main political alliance, the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, said on Thursday they must be involved in the resumed Pakistan-India peace process while one of them said it had prepared an outline for a possible settlement of the Kashmir dispute acceptable to all three sides.
But leaders of the two sides led by Syed Ali Geelani, and Maulana Abbas Ansari, who explained their views to a group of visiting Pakistani journalists at separate meetings with them, seemed undecided about who should represent the disputed Jammu and Kashmir state in tripartite talks with Pakistan and India to discuss a settlement of the 57-year-old dispute.
Mr Geelani, who wants Jammu and Kashmir state s accession to Pakistan, warned Pakistan against making what he called a U-turn in its Kashmir policy as it did in Afghanistan after the 9/11 and said Kashmiris must be included in the peace process as a principal party to the dispute.
He said Kashmiris had no objection to Pakistan's search for peace with India as they wanted peace more than any other party because of their sufferings. "But peace in (Kashmir) cannot be established unless the Kashmiri people are allowed to exercise their right to self-determination," he added in a reference to long-standing United Nations resolutions that called for holding a plebiscite to let Kashmiris decide whether they would join Pakistan or India. "Without this, it would be a peace of the grave," said Mr Geelani, who estimated the number of Kashmiris killed in the past 15 years of an anti-India revolt to be near 100,000 mark.
"Even if India carpets roads in Kashmir with gold, it would not be able to pay for the blood of our martyrs," he said. "We will safeguard the cause for which they sacrificed their lives."
ANSARI FACTION'S OUTLINE: The other Hurriyat faction, led by Maulana Ansari, seemed to be conciliatory and said it was possible to find a solution acceptable to Kashmiris, Pakistan and India.
Speaking for the faction, former APHC chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat said his group was prepared to exchange views about its outline for settlement of the Kashmir dispute with Pakistan and India. But he declined to give details of the outline, which he said took into account sensitivities, security, economic and commercial interests and national honour of all the three parties - India, Pakistan and Kashmiris as well as the functional togetherness of different regions of Jammu and Kashmir despite what he called differences in the aspirations of people living in Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh.
"We want to contribute effectively (to the process)," said Mr Bhat, whose faction has held talks with former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani after Mr Geelani's departure from the previously united APHC for which for both factions blame each other.
"If we are involved (in the India-Pakistan talks), we will give them a way out," he said. Asked about who should represent Kashmiris in the process, he said he would be the last person to include Mr Geelani but would agree to his presence if it helped a purposeful dialogue.
Mr Bhat accused Pakistan of encouraging the APHC split last year while Mr Geelani earlier blamed it on alleged violations of the alliance's constitution by the other side.
At a meeting to welcome Pakistani journalists, members of the state's main Kashmir Bar Association earlier reiterated a 1990 resolution of the organization to support the Kashmiri struggle and for the implementation of the UN resolutions on Kashmir.
National Conference president Omar Abdullah, grandson of the late Kashmiri leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, told Pakistani journalists at a lunch meeting that his party stood for a 'soft border' between India and Pakistan and supported the plan to start a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, adding that it would continue its efforts for greater autonomy for Indian-ruled Kashmir.
Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front faction that is part of the APHC (Ansari group), in a speech to Pakistani journalists on Wednesday night, said Kashmiri were the prime party to the dispute and must be included in the India-Pakistan dialogue.
