NEW DELHI, May 30: Kashmir’s spiritual leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq said on Monday he would travel to Pakistan on June 2 by the recently opened Srinagar-Muzaffarabad land route although instead of taking the bus he would use private transport to the Line of Control.
“We are all set to travel to Pakistan on June 2,” Mirwaiz, who heads the factious All Parties Hurriyat Conference told Dawn from Srinagar. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is undterstood to have told one or two foreign correspondents who spoke to him separately after a press conference on Monday that India would not stand in the way of the journey although travel to Pakistan would be in violation of the agreement between India and Pakistan.
Senior Indian officials including aides o the prime minister were quoted as saying on Monday that the issue was really a test of Pakistan’s commitment to the agreements signed with India.
Mirwaiz said he was not going to stop at Azad Kashmir as advised by certain Indian officials. He would lead a five-member APHC delegation for a two-week tour of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. All five Hurriyat leaders have submitted their travel documents at the Regional Passport Office in Srinagar, Mirwaiz said.
He did not explain why the Indian government had given him assurance that he could travel by car to the Kaman post.
“There are signals that everything would be okay,” he said.
