Invitation accepted by APHC: Kashmiri leaders due on June 2, JKLF undecided
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, May 25: Kashmir’s spiritual leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Wednesday that he would travel to Azad Kashmir by bus on June 2 along with other leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
“This is more a humanitarian need than a political issue,” the Mirwaiz told Dawn from Srinagar. He said while four executive members of the APHC would travel with him, the names of some more delegates would be announced on Thursday.
Jamaat-i-Islami leader and Hurriyat’s former head Syed Ali Shah Geelani said he had called a meeting of his Tehreek-i-Hurriyat of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday and another meeting with former members of the APHC before deciding whether to travel to Pakistan.
Mr Geelani declined to say how he planned to travel if he decided to accept Pakistan’s invitation. “One thing is clear. I will not travel by the bus which I have opposed,” he said.
His close associates said Mr Geelani might consider travelling by air, an occasion that would prompt him to seek renewal of his Indian passport which was impounded in the mid-eighties.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik said a decision on his travel plans would be taken after consultation with his party units abroad, including the United States and Britain.
The Mirwaiz described the Line of Control as not a line on the ground but one that tore the Kashmiri heart into two.
“Our effort should be to narrow these distances, not as a political solution but a simple humanitarian gesture,” he said.
The Mirwaiz hoped that upon return from Pakistan there would be an invitation from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to hold talks with the Kashmiri resistance leaders.
“There should be unsolicited invitation, like the one we got from Pakistan today or the one we were given by the previous Indian government.”
The Mirwaiz stressed that one of his key agendas in Pakistan would be to meet both the political and militant leaders fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
“The time has come when the political arm and the diplomatic arm of our struggle unite together with those who have been fighting with guns, to chalk out a coherent strategy to benefit Kashmir.”
“During our meetings we will try to know what is the stand of people and politicians of Pakistan in getting the Kashmir issue resolved,” the Mirwaiz said.
KASURI: Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Wednesday expressed the hope that all APHC leaders would visit Pakistan in response to Islamabad’s invitation to discuss the Kashmir issue, adds APP.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad, Mr Kasuri said that second round of the composite dialogue process with India was under way and the May 26-27 talks on Siachen were part of this process.
