'We do not want Kashmiri Pandits to migrate from Kashmir.'
Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who recently came out against violence in Kashmir, on Saturday rejected the Centre's dialogue offer.
Breaking the ice, the Centre's interlocutors on Kashmir talked to Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq over the phone discussing the situation in the state and seeking time for a meeting.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of APHC leaders in Srinagar, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said: "The decision to visit Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir was taken at a meeting of the conglomerate here."
Extremists groups have warned the Hurriyat Conference not to hold talks without first consulting them.
Hurriyat in touch with Kashmiri Pandits
The Hurriyat delegation, also comprising Abdul Gani Bhat and Bilal Lone, was slated to return on January 24.
Pakistan has admitted that the timing of its high commissioner's meeting with the Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi ahead of the foreign secretary-level talks was "perhaps not totally right".
Hurriyat's moderate faction led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Saturday that it was ready for talks with the Centre for resolution of Kashmir issue, but that the back channels had "fallen silent" for the past two months.
In the Kashmir Valley, we need to begin to make a distinction between an insurgent who fights the security forces and a terrorist who murders unarmed civilians, suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of All-Party Hurriyat Conference, has claimed that on July 13, the country will witness one of the biggest peaceful protests in their struggle for resolution of problem of Jammu and Kashmir.
Squashing erstwhile 'separatists', marginalising the 'mainstream', and squeezing funding channels have all evidently had an impact -- at least for the moment, notes David Devadas after a visit to Srinagar.
The suspension of mobile communication for the past 12 days in Kashmir amid strict curfew has put citizens in a desperate situation, says Athar Parvaiz.
Under the Indo-Pak agreement for the launch of bus service, any permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir can travel only between two parts of undivided state on a permit.
"Holding of religious processions is linked with the belief and, therefore, the stand of the government on the issue is unrealistic and undemocratic," he said.
The areas of Srinagar placed under curfew include police station in the jurisdiction of Rainawari, Nowhatta, Khanyar, MR Gunj, Safakadal, Parimpora, and police division Qamarwari and Bemina, a police spokesman said. Curfew has also been imposed in Pampore town of Pulwama district in south Kashmir and Baramulla, Sopore, Kupwara and Handwara towns in north Kashmir
The team also visited Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front headquarters at Maisuma and held a prolonged meeting with chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik.
The stone-pelting was sponsored by the Syed Ali Shah Geelani faction to create law and order problem in Sopore, Abdul Latief Lone, detained under the Public Safety Act, told police, according to DIG (North Kashmir) Munir Khan.
The APHC said the statement is in the larger interest of the people in the South Asian region.
As schools in Kashmir Valley reopened on Monday after over three months, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other separatists not to target children because they are going to schools.
Mohammad Rafiq Shah was president of the J&K Peoples Liberation League.
Reacting to National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah's appeal to separatists to come forward for talks to solve the Kashmir issue, the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference on Monday termed the suggestion as one born out of "frustration".
In the last three years, the Union Territory administration has invoked 311 (2)(c) of the Constitution to sack more than 50 employees, who were allegedly operating in shadows within the government and drawing a salary from the public exchequer, however, they were helping Pakistani terror outfits, providing logistics to terrorists, propagating terrorists' ideology, raising terror finances and furthering secessionist agenda, officials said.
In the case of the killing of the IAF personnel in a terror attack in Srinagar in 1990, the court had summoned two witnesses for identification, but they could not appear citing medical reasons, Bhat said, adding that both of them had to come from outside.
Suggestions from certain quarters, including Pakistan and the United States, about having "self-rule" in Jammu and Kashmir would also figure in the talks with Musharraf, he said.
He said no reduction of forces within the state, could become 'an impediment in the peace process.'
The Mirwaiz said barring the opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, the Centre had taken no positive step to build the confidence of the people.
The Jammu and Kashmir police placed several Hurriyat leaders under house arrest and imposed restrictions on the movement of people on Monday to foil separatists' plan to take out a march to express solidarity with the family of a teenager killed during a clash between demonstrators and security personnel last week.
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