LONDON, Sept 22: All Parties Hurriyat Conference is more optimistic than ever that the Kashmir dispute could be solved through political means as the world community is showing renewed interest in the issue.

In an interview with Dawn, key APHC leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that the United States was particularly showing a lot of interest in the solution of this long-standing problem.

Mirwaiz was on a brief visit to London after his tour of the US where he had held important meetings, including those with the US State Department officials and President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mirwaiz said that following the Sept 11 events the APHC was giving priority to achieve a political solution of the dispute rather than a military one. He condemned those who were killing innocent people in the Valley in the garb of freedom fighters.

He said the APHC didn’t know who these people were and what did they want, adding that the Hurriyat would do whatever it could to stop such elements from damaging the Kashmir cause.

He said the APHC had boycotted the elections in the Valley as it believed that these elections would not help resolve the dispute. He said the real solution of the problem lay in the initiation of a dialogue on a tripartite or bilateral basis, involving India, Pakistan and the APHC.

He said the dispute could only be resolved when both India and Pakistan showed flexibility in their traditional stands. He said at one point in future India would have to accept a third party mediation to resolve this dispute as it was an international issue.

Criticizing the Indian government for its stand towards the APHC, Mirwaiz said the authorities in New Delhi should allow the Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan to prepare ground for the start of a process, which would result in the solution of the dispute.