LAHORE, Jan 27: A three-member delegation of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) returned to India on Saturday feeling "satisfied" with the outcome of the 10-day visit that 'promises' the participation of the people of Kashmir in the process of resolving the outstanding conflict through peaceful dialogue.

Headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the delegation, which also included a former APHC chairperson Abdul Ghani Bhatt and Bilal Ghani Lone, understands that a consensus emerging among political parties of Pakistan and political leadership of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control, has been a major achievement of the visit, and it will help resolve the dispute in a gradual process.

They say that the establishment of working groups between Kashmiri leadership across the border has been a major achievement of the visit which has created a situation congenial to Pakistan and India who are making progress with the composite dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.

"We have, however, made the stand of the people of Kashmir clear to President Gen Pervez Musharraf, opposition parties (of Pakistan) and the leadership in Muzaffarabad that no solution which does not take Kashmiris into confidence, will be acceptable; and I am glad that the president (Musharraf) and all political parties have reciprocated in a positive manner," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told journalists before his departure to New Delhi.

The Mirwaiz said that the APHC's next step would be to initiate a similar dialogue with the political parties of India and the government in New Delhi and hoped that the APHC would get a positive response from there as well. "Our objective was to involve political parties in the conflict resolution process and I am happy that their response has been encouraging," he said, adding that such a consensus was of significant importance at a stage when the resolution of the Kashmir dispute seems to have entered a decisive phase.

Extending complete support to President Musharraf's ideas on Kashmir embodied in his four-point proposal, the Mirwaiz said it was positive and could provide a beginning that was needed at this decisive stage. He said the proposals would hopefully serve to achieve an interim solution to the issue through peaceful dialogue.

He said the APHC wanted to go ahead with the proposal and mobilise the people of Kashmir to understand that the proposal had the potential of working out a common plan for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

The APHC leader said that India also seemed to have now adopted a positive approach to the problem. New Delhi no longer wanted the status quo to persist and it was a welcome development.

"We need to negotiate on New Delhi's proposals also so that they are put to implementation for the resolution of the long-standing dispute".

"There are no two opinions on the fact that the only way to settle the dispute was through dialogue and we are prepared to extend a complete and unqualified cooperation to the two sides so that India and Pakistan are able to make meaningful progress to the cherished goal step-by-step," the Kashmiri leader said, adding that the APHC would provide the two parties with useful input on the issue.

In reply to a question, the APHC leader said that the opposition in Pakistan wanted to reinforce the dialogue process but pleaded that the government should take them into confidence. He said he had conveyed this message to President Musharraf with the request to involve the opposition in the process and also take parliament into confidence over the issue.

Replying to another question, he said that a section of the Kashmiri leadership was pursuing a conventional approach on the issue.

The APHC would like them to adopt an approach which was pragmatic and had close link with ground realities.