Kashmiri leaders can visit Pakistan: Indian minister visits valley
SRINAGAR, Nov 6: India's Home Minister Shivraj Patil said here on Saturday that there were no restrictions on anyone wanting to travel (to Pakistan).
Mr Patil made the announcement during his first visit to the violence-hit Kashmir since his induction as the home minister in the Congress-led cabinet that assumed office in May.
"There are no restrictions of any kind on anyone wanting to travel (to Pakistan)," Mr Patil said.
"If they (freedom fighters) inquire ... through proper methods, we will look into it. There should not be any problem."
The home minister, accompanied by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, said there was nothing to stop Kashmiri leaders travelling to Pakistan, and also that India was willing to talk to all leaders opposed to the Indian rule.
The head of a moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, has ruled out talks until freedom fighters were allowed to visit Pakistan.
Mirwaiz Farooq's faction held two rounds of talks with former Indian deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani earlier this year.
"We have decided not to hold any further talks with the centre," he told reporters late on Friday.
"We should be allowed to visit Pakistan first to hold talks with the Pakistani leadership," he said.
Only Mirwaiz Farooq has a passport; other Kashmiri leaders have either been denied travel documents or have had them impounded by the Indian authorities.
The home minister insisted security had improved in the region where 15 people died in latest violence on Saturday.
"Here the (security) situation seems to be improving," said Mr Patil, who reached the governor's house in a helicopter as troops flooded the streets.
"We will have to work towards creating harmony and improve economic conditions," he added.
Ahead of Mr Patil's arrival in Srinagar, militants attacked a paramilitary camp in Sopore, hurling grenades and firing at random, a Border Security Force official said.
The troops returned fire, killing one of the militants. Five border security guards were wounded, one of whom died later, the official said.
Indian troops, meanwhile, shot dead five militants in the Mendhar sector of the Poonch district after they sneaked into occupied Kashmir from the Pakistani side, a defence spokesman claimed.
Three more infiltrators were shot dead in the Uri sector, police said, adding that two other militants died in a gunfight in the Baramulla district early on Saturday.
In Srinagar, two soldiers were killed and a civilian was injured in a grenade attack by militants as the home minister was in a meeting with legislators just eight kilometres away, police said.
In Kupwara, militants shot dead a police informer.
Security for Mr Patil's visit was tightened further after the Sopore attack, police said.
