SRINAGAR, 19 November 2004 — The main separatist alliance in Indian Kashmir insisted yesterday on holding talks with Pakistan before reviving a dialogue with New Delhi, a demand Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said was not acceptable.

The differences between the two sides came as Manmohan wound up his first trip to the disputed region since taking office in May. His visit had been aimed at revitalizing a peace process to end a 15-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, who held a meeting in Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar, said they also wanted a direct invitation from New Delhi for resumption of the peace talks launched earlier this year.

At the end of its meeting APHC chief Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq said the Indian government should extend a formal invitation to them for continuing the dialogue process with the separatist leadership. “We are ready for talks if they are Kashmir centric and Pakistan is involved in the dialogue process. Since there is a new government at the center, we need a fresh invitation for talks,” Umar told Arab News.

“We are waiting for both. Both have to be addressed,” Umar said a day after Manmohan offered fresh talks.

“There has to be an invitation from the government of India and there has to be a commitment by the government of India that yes, they will allow Hurriyat to talk to Pakistan so that the process can move on,” Umar said.

Manmohan said the Hurriyat demand was unfair.

“I have not laid down any preconditions and I don’t expect anyone else to lay down preconditions,” he told reporters in Kashmir’s Hindu-dominated region of Jammu at the end of his two-day visit to the state.

“It is not fair that anybody else lay down a precondition that he or she should be allowed to go there before they talk to us,” he said.

Manmohan also said that during his visit to Srinagar on Wednesday he had invited “one and all” in Kashmir for talks and that included the Hurriyat as well.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both the nuclear-armed rivals. The Muslim-majority region went to India when the subcontinent was divided on religious lines in 1947 after independence from Britain and has been the cause of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan.

Nearly 45,000 people have been killed in the state since a revolt against Indian rule erupted in 1989. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of supporting the militants, a charge denied by Islamabad.

Umar said Hurriyat leaders would meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz when he visits New Delhi next week and discuss proposals to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Referring to Manmohan’s offer of talks, he said: “There should be a proposal on the ground but they are not making any concrete proposals. There is confusion. He has not spoken openly.”

Hurriyat held two rounds of talks with the Indian government earlier this year but the dialogue apparently broke down after Manmohan’s Congress party came to power and set conditions unacceptable to the alliance.

Pakistani media reported yesterday that President Pervez Musharraf met anti-India Kashmiri leaders to discuss his new proposals on resolving the dispute and told them to be flexible. “Flexibility and sincerity cannot be one-sided, but must be displayed bilaterally and mutually if we are to move forward,” Musharraf told Kashmiri leaders late Wednesday, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

“There is a need for demonstration of flexibility by all sides, Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir.”

The meeting was Musharraf’s first with Kashmiri leaders since he floated a raft of proposals late October including demilitarization, the carve-up of Kashmir, and placement of sections under joint mandate or UN control.

The proposals were the most radical ever offered by a Pakistani leader in the 54-year fight over who should rule the region.

Islamabad has traditionally demanded a plebiscite to allow Kashmiris to choose rule by India or Pakistan. But Musharraf has been rolling back that demand and in his October proposals the plebiscite did not rate a mention.

However, he stressed in Wednesday’s talks with leaders from the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and officials from Pakistani-ruled Kashmir that the government retained its “principled position” of ensuring Kashmiris accept the solution.

Musharraf rejected any solution based on converting the existing cease-fire line that divides the territory between India and Pakistan into a permanent border, a solution that Indian officials privately say would be acceptable.

At a public meeting in Jammu, Manmohan asked the youth of Kashmir to reject terrorism and promised them jobs. “I can assure you that the center (federal government) will work shoulder to shoulder with the state government to bring about an atmosphere of peace and to rid Jammu and Kashmir of poverty and unemployment,” Manmohan said.

— Additional input from agencies