06 January 2005	Thursday	24 Ziqa'ad 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NEW DELHI, Jan 5: The Indian government on Wednesday decided to commence a fresh round of political level dialogue with various groups in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of a political-level dialogue with Pakistan.

Official sources said the Indian move could be related to a telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on Tuesday. It appears that Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri rang up his Indian counterpart Kunwar Natwar Singh primarily to convey condolences on the death of Jyotindra Nath Dixit but the two went on to discuss other issues.

There are indications that their meeting in Islamabad initially proposed for the first week of February to review the second round of the composite dialogue would be postponed till after the Saarc summit in Dhaka.

The summit itself is expected to be scheduled for early next month now. Kashmiri resistance sources however said they saw no indication that the proposed Indian move on Kashmir would break new grounds as far as hey were concerned.

India's decision to start the talks was taken at a meeting headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil and attended by New Delhi's interlocutor for Kashmir N.N. Vohra.

Speaking to Dawn from Srinagar, Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) said the group had explained its position to the Indian government and those principles were still valid.