12 December 2004	Sunday	29 Shawwal 1425

NEW DELHI, Dec 11: A two-member delegation of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, has arrived in Kathmandu after its departure was cleared by the Indian government.

APHC sources said there were some hiccups at the Delhi Airport over the issue of travel documents. But later, Mirwaiz Farooq and former APHC chairman Abdul Gani Bhat were allowed to travel to Nepal on the basis of identity cards of their organization.

The delegation is scheduled to attend a conference of Kashmiri leaders from the two sides of the Line of Control.

Their host, Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, the Secretary-General of the Pugwash Conference, says Kashmir is a nuclear flashpoint between India and Pakistan.

This is the first time that Prof Bhat is attending a conference on Kashmir abroad.

The meeting was under some cloud after Nepali officials said they would not allow their country to be used for anti-India propaganda.

However, Nepal eventually gave them permission to enter the country. Nepal's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sharan Mahat was quoted by Indian news reports as saying: "We gave them permission because the concerned countries have shown no objection to the meeting".

Two Kashmiri leaders, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabbir Shah, were placed under house arrest two days ago, ostensibly to stop them from travelling.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik, attending a human rights conference here, told Dawn that he was not travelling to Kathmandu for health reasons. "I am not feeling too well, and that's the real reason," he said.

The meeting's aim was to develop contacts between India and Pakistan at the people's level, the organizers said.