MUZAFFARABAD, June 13: Thousands of people turned out to greet leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) who addressed public meetings in three major towns of Azad Kashmir on Monday. The biggest gathering was reported from the southern town of Rawalakot where, according to police sources, around 14,000 people received the visiting leaders at a large ground where their chopper made a landing.
AJK President Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan and Leader of the Opposition in AJK Assembly Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry were already in the town to receive the visitors.
After spending two days in Muzaffarabad, the APHC leaders left for Pakistan to meet and interact with the top Pakistani leadership and intelligentsia to find ways for a peaceful settlement of their long-standing problem.
“It is due to the sacrifices of the Kashmiri people I am addressing you today,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in Rawalakot. “As far as Kashmiris’ participation in the process is concerned, it has begun and our presence here bears testimony to it,” he said.
But the APHC leader warned that unless Kashmiris were treated as the “first party” in the India and Pakistan discussions on Kashmir, the talks would remain incomplete and inconclusive.
“Unless the Kashmiris are allowed to decide their future on their own, there can neither be any durable settlement (of the dispute) nor can peace come to the region,” he said.
