NEW DELHI, April 5: Representatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference decided on Tuesday to meet the leaders of India and Pakistan in New Delhi during the April 16-18 visit of President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq said. He told Dawn on telephone from Srinagar that 60 members of the general council and the executive council of the APHC met under his leadership on Tuesday and resolved that the resistance groups under its aegis should present a memorandum to President Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“We will meet next week again to work out the memorandum, but principally it would be about our struggle to have the Kashmir dispute resolved in a time-bound manner with the help of the two countries involved in it,” he said.

The APHC has welcomed the proposed bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad as a humanitarian gesture.

“But this is a good gesture and no more,” he said, adding: “The real political issue needs to be resolved sincerely and seriously by the two leaders. We are expecting a lot from these talks,” he said, referring to the visit by Gen Musharraf to watch a cricket match between the two countries.

Kashmir is expected to be one of the serious issues to be discussed, along with possibly the Baglihar dam standoff.

President Musharraf had met nearly all senior Hurriyat leaders in Delhi in July 2001 and would most probably meet as many as would be here to see him again. But it was not clear how the APHC leader was going to persuade the Indian prime minister to give them an audience.

“We are going to try,” said Kashmir’s spiritual leader, indicating that the first opportunity to broach the issue could come as early as Thursday when Dr Singh visits Srinagar to flag off the bus to Muzaffarabad. “We are hoping that the issue of Kashmir will not yet again be brushed under the carpet.”