NEW DELHI, April 13: A range of Kashmiri leaders are preparing to meet President Gen. Pervez Musharraf but a piquant problem has arisen over the request of some of them to also meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, informed sources said on Wednesday. Dr Singh said on Wednesday that ‘people outside the elected government in Jammu and Kashmir’ also wanted to meet him.

Adding that the All Parties Hurriyat Conference was one of them, he said: “I am ready to meet them…If anybody outside the political system wanted to interact with me or my colleagues, see me, I am available,” Dr Singh said in Chandigarh.

However, Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq told Dawn from Srinagar that India appeared to be keen to have the meeting with Dr Singh ahead of Saturday afternoon’s arrival of Gen. Musharraf.

“They are probably worried that otherwise this could be construed as tripartite talks on Kashmir, an impression they want to avoid,” the Mirwaiz said.

He said actually there was no time before the Pakistan president’s arrival for the Kashmiris to be in Delhi as they would be required to be in Srinagar for the Friday prayers on April 15.

Efforts are still under way to ensure that a meeting does in fact take place with Dr Singh. Some of the Kashmiri leaders, including Jamaat-i-Islami’s Syed Ali Shah Geelani, would meet the general separately.