ISLAMABAD, 5 June 2005 — President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday a visit to Pakistan by Indian Kashmiri separatist leaders was a “great leap forward” toward finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute.
“This is a great leap forward in understanding, in flexibility being shown by both sides,” Musharraf told reporters at a military base.
Musharraf said he was confident that the visit of the separatist leaders would lead to peace in the region.
A nine-member delegation, including seven from the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, arrived Thursday in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan’s sector of Kashmir, on the first such trip since they launched their campaign against Indian rule in Kashmir in 1989.
The separatists arrived in Islamabad yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, Musharraf said it was notable that the Kashmiri leaders had neither come on Indian passports nor with Pakistani visas. “It shows the understanding by both sides.
“It is a recognition by both India and Pakistan of the disputed status of Kashmir.”
Musharraf added that he hoped the visit should lead “to discussion of the resolution of Kashmir, the options open, etc”.
Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told reporters here yesterday that, “Today for the first time it has been accepted that Kashmiris are a party to the dispute.”
“We have brought some solid proposals that we want to share with the political leadership here,” said Umar.
His colleague, Abdul Ghani Bhat, said the delegation had come with “ideas we will discuss with Pakistani leadership and you”. But they declined to go into details.
Umar said there would also have to be a dialogue with “those who hold the gun” and asked Kashmiri militants based in Pakistan to “give peace a chance”.
The Pakistani state minister for foreign affairs, Khusro Bakhtiar, who came to welcome them at a helipad, said a “new beginning” had been made. “It is a step toward the ultimate resolution,” he said.
Veteran Indian politician and opposition leader L.K. Advani, on a weeklong visit to Pakistan, said efforts should be made to make the peace process irreversible.
“In order to resolve our issues we need patience, optimism and determination,” said Advani.
“The process toward peace and normalcy shall be pursued without any hitch and the process should be made irreversible.”
Umar and his colleagues reiterated their call for the participation of Kashmiris in the dialogue process between Pakistan and India.
“It is also in the national interest of India and Pakistan to give this role to Kashmiris,” said Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Yasin Malik. “This is the collective voice of the Jammu and Kashmir people.”
Malik expressed his support for the India-Pakistan peace progress.
Though the Hurriyat leaders came by bus from Jammu and Kashmir Thursday, they did not confine themselves to “Azad Kashmir” — as the bus permit condition demands — but traveled to Islamabad.
Malik said they had invited “Azad Kashmir” political leaders to visit Jammu and Kashmir to erase “artificial distances and lines” separating them.
He wondered why Kashmiri politicians should be stopped from meeting each other while people of Pakistan and India visited each other’s country.
The visiting delegation includes Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Bilal Ghani Lone and Mohammed Abdullah Tari.
