Setting a pre-condition, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of 23 separatist outfits in Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday said it was ready for talks with the government on the Kashmir issue if it was allowed to visit Pakistan to talk to militant groups there.
Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said this in a convention of the Islamic Students' League, which was renamed as the Democratic Political Movement.
Bhat said, "If the Hurriyat failed in its endeavour to bring around the militant leadership, it will concede defeat or else India has to give up its rigid stand on Kashmir."
"We can achieve some result and make some headway if the Hurriyat is allowed to go to Pakistan for talks. If India and Pakistan cannot solve Kashmir issue, then let us do it," he said.
Bhat said the amalgam wanted the right to self-determination, a promise made by then prime minister late Jawaharlal Nehru in the United Nations. "Give us what you have promised to Kashmiri people," he said.
Brushing aside the Centre's assertion that the movement in Kashmir was terrorism, the Hurriyat chairman said, "Kashmiris cannot be terrorists. We respect human blood as we respect humans. They cannot carry out an attack on Parliament which they have been accused of."
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