NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Kashmiri leaders, opposed to Indian rule in their homeland, are expecting to meet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz when he visits New Delhi this month, Kashmir's spiritual leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq said on Wednesday.
He told Dawn from Srinagar that senior members of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference were looking forward to a formal invitation for the widely expected meeting.
Pakistani officials in New Delhi said an itinerary for Mr Aziz was being finalized but indicated a meeting with the Kashmiri leadership was on.
Maulvi Umar Farooq said the APHC was not expecting to be invited for talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was officially confirmed to visit the state for two days from Wednesday.
The confirmation of Dr Singh's visit to Jammu and Kashmir was prompted by a report in the Indian Express on Wednesday, which claimed that the Indian prime minister had yet again postponed the tour of the region.
Denying the report, an official statement said: "There is no change in the Prime Minister's scheduled visit to the state. The prime minister will visit the state as scheduled. Apart from being factually incorrect, the news report is also irresponsible and tendentious in dealing with a subject of national importance.
"The prime minister is looking forward to his visit to Jammu and Kashmir and to meeting and interacting with a wide cross section of the people of the state," the statement said.
Maulvi Farooq said if Dr Singh made the unlikely move to invite the Hurriyat leaders for talks APHC leaders would meet to take a decision. "What we would prefer is to be allowed to visit Pakistan first," he declared.
If allowed by New Delhi to travel, a possibility not being ruled out, the APHC leaders "would meet Pakistan's government representatives, Kashmiri leaders, and of course people fighting with arms," Maulvi Umar Farooq said. He was expecting all factions of the APHC to unite before the visit to Pakistan.
