India urged to allow APHC leaders to visit Pakistan

02 Nov, 2004

Leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has called upon India to allow Hurriyat delegation to visit Pakistan before third round of composite dialogue between the two countries.
In an interview with Radio Tehran, he said the visit of APHC delegation would brighten the chances of success of future talks between India and Pakistan.
To a question Mirwaiz said, Kashmiris were basic party to Kashmir issue and without including them in the process, no durable solution could be found out of this core issue.
In response to a question, he said composite dialogue between India and Pakistan was the only way to resolve Kashmir issue.
Meanwhile talking with a private Pakistani TV channel, he lauded President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to hold open debate on Kashmir and said it could pave the way for a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the issue.
He said that constitution of APHC besides seeking a resolution of the dispute under the UN resolutions also had a provision for negotiated settlement of the dispute.
Hurriyat leader said that both India and Pakistan were not making any headway while sticking to their respective stated positions. "It was a wise move on the part of President Pervez Musharraf to put forward some other proposals for the peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue", he added.
He said that Indians would never agree to the idea of plebiscite as they were fully aware of the fact that the Kashmir was of Jammu and Kashmir would favour annexation of Kashmir to Pakistan.
Mirwaiz said that not only Pakistan but Kashmiris too never supported the idea of declaring the Line of Control (LoC) as a permanent border between India and Pakistan that is why there was the need of a way forward which President Pervez Musharraf has proposed.
In response to a question he said, "It would be better arrangement if people from both sides of Kashmir are allowed to move without visa."

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