A three-member US Congressional delegation on Wednesday visited Azad Kashmir and called for the settlement of the long-running territorial dispute between India and Pakistan.
Congressmen Joseph Pitts, William Todd and Steven Chabot were taken to a Kashmiri refugees' camp on the outskirts of the state capital where a local senior official gave them a ritual briefing.
The official told the delegation that Azad Kashmir, was home to about 22,000 Kashmiri refugees who fled the Indian occupied Kashmir after 1990 to "escape Indian repression".
The refugees have been rehabilitated in 15 different camps in different parts of Azad Kashmir.
"Settlement of the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan is a must for durable peace and stability in the region," delegation leader Joseph Pitts told the migrants gathering in Ambore Camp.
Pitts appreciated the breakthrough efforts by the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours "for normalisation of relations and settlement of their dispute over Kashmir."
"I pay tributes to Indian and Pakistani leaders who want to resolve the issue in consultation with each other," he said.