A visiting delegation of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Sunday met leaders from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. The Hurriyat delegation, led by the group's chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, met the political leadership of PoK in Muzaffarabad.
Musharraf assured the delegation that any resolution of the Kashmir issue will be finalised only after ascertaining the wishes of the the Kashmiri people. \n
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday met Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, who had also met Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi earlier. Pakistani officials said that during the 30-minute meeting, Farooq briefed Zardari about the All Parties Hurriyat Conference's perspective of the ground realities in Kashmir.Earlier, the Pakistan foreign minister met Farooq, ahead of his meeting with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna on Monday.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, condemned the collective punishment being inflicted upon the entire population of valley for pursuing their just cause for the resolution of Kashmir issue.
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.
Authorities on Tuesday imposed restrictions in old city in Srinagar to foil plans of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference to hold a rally at Eidgah to commemorate the death anniversary of its two assassinated leaders.
Leaders of the pro-dialogue moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference including the conglomerate chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest on Thursday by the authorities in Srinagar to thwart the proposed march and sit-in by them on World Human Rights Day.Almost all the senior separatist leaders of the moderate group, including Mirwaiz himself, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest.
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.
Expressing serious reservations regarding the court martial of army personnel involved in Machil fake encounter, the moderate, All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday said, "Machil and all such cases should be heard in civil courts under wide public gaze instead in the closed rooms."
Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq was detained along with hundreds of his supporters for staging a protest in Srinagar, coinciding with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Jammu and Kashmir. The rally was, however, intercepted by the police at Munawarabad area resulting in clashes. The police had to use tear gas and resort to repeated baton charges to disperse the protest rally.
The Centre is acting tough with Kashmir's separatist leaders by taking on their foreigner wives, refusing them to stay with their husbands in Jammu and Kashmir.
"My decision to join the moderate group is aimed at strengthening the separatist voice in Kashmir," Aziz said. "Kashmiris are the basic party to the dispute, and must be included in the ongoing peace process to make it meaningful and result-oriented," he added.
Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, the chief spokesman of the separatist conglomerate, said APHC's 'self governance was not something of a concession like autonomy.'
All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq has reacted sharply to recommendations made by a high-level committee favouring autonomy for the state. "The agenda of Hurriyat has never been autonomy, our agenda is freedom, so we didn't want to give any comment on it," he added."We accept only that solution in which Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir are involved. Any solution between two parties is not acceptable," he said.
Chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq Friday claimed that the initiative of the separatist amalgam for "trilateral talks" with India and Pakistan has been received well in Islamabad.
With his claim that some ministers in Jammu and Kashmir were paid to buy stability, former Army chief V K Singh has opened a "can of worms" and has undermined the legitimacy of successive governments in the state since 1947, moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.
Authorities imposed restrictions in certain areas of Srinagar on Saturday to scuttle a protest march called by separatists to coincide with Martyr's Day
Indirectly blaming the militant groups for the attack, Khan said it seems to be the work of the forces opposed to the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan.
Expressing grief over the Uttarakhand tragedy, the moderate Hurriyat Conference on Friday demanded restricting Amarnath Yatra to an earlier schedule to safeguard the fragile environment of Himalayas.
The blast at the heavily-guarded CRPF camp at Nowpora came even as authorities mounted a security bandobast across the state, especially in Srinagar where the prime minister is scheduled to address a public rally -- his second in Kashmir.
'We expressed our desire that Centre should halt the continued operations against civilians, including cordon and search and other such actions,' he said.
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".
Musharraf briefed the Hurriyat delegation on his proposals to resolve the Kashmir issue and his recent talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Protests rocked parts of Kashmir Valley including Srinagar on Saturday where Pakistan and Islamic State flags were yet again displayed by masked youths after Eid prayers.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has assured the Hurriyat moderate faction that Islamabad was open to 'any solution' acceptable to the people of J&K on the Kashmir issue, its chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said.
Shabir Shah, senior separatist leader and chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party, on Monday laid down some conditions before the DFP joins a front representing all the moderate separatist parties in Kashmir. Shah was responding to the call for unity by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference. Farooq had asked all separatist parties to unite under the aegis of a common banner.
The moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday asked people to cancel the reception arranged for its seven-member delegation returning from Pakistan on Thursday.
'America and Britain want a greater role in sorting out the Kashmir problem which they liken to the Palestine problem,' says Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, former chairman of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
For the first time in 25 years since the start of militancy in Kashmir, the separatists have not called for a general strike on Martyrs' Day on Monday in view of the fasting month of Ramzan.
"We wanted to meet the Indian and Pakistani leaders," he said, adding, "The Pakistan High Commission has invited us to meet Musharraf but there has been no positive response from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's office as yet."
Before leaving for a conference of Asian NGOs to be held in Hyderabad, Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said that during the meet he would highlight the need for tripartite talks on the issue.
