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Hurriyat keeping its fingers crossed

The leaders of the Hurriyat Conference were hopeful that something positive would emerge from the summit level meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to rediff.com Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that the Hurriyat leaders had been keeping a tab on the developments in Agra and so far they were satisfied with the progress made by the two leaders.

"I hope for the sake of the people of Kashmir that something positive and constructive comes out of this dialogue so that people in Srinagar get positive signals. We are more then happy with the progress made on the first day of the meeting between the two leaders," he said.

He admitted that unless something goes wrong at the last minute the talks were heading in the right direction.

"This is a golden opportunity and should not go waste," he said.

The Mirwaiz appreciated the reduction in troops in the Valley but hoped that they would not be replaced by para-military forces.

"The people want to see some steps being taken by the Government of India to reassure the people of Jammu and Kashmir that their interests are also being kept in mind. Further reduction of troops in the valley would be a welcome step."

"Then the government should release political prisoners - irrespective of whether they were involved in militancy or not - so that they could reunite with their families. Some of them do not have even money to meet their legal expenses. We provide them with some assistance," the Mirwaiz told rediff.com.

He said that the Hurriyat conference leaders would have no problems in meeting either Prime Minister Vajpayee or the Union Home Minister L K Advani to put forward their point of view should an invitation be extended to them.

He bluntly ruled out any talks with the Centre's emissary K C Pant on the Kashmir problem.

"That chapter is closed. Pant can go and spend rest of his life talking to a lamp post in the Valley. Now no one would talk to him," he claimed.

The Hurriyat leaders are awaiting the outcome of the third and final round of talks between Vajpayee and Musharraf.

EARLIER REPORT
Hurriyat pins hopes on Musharraf

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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