Kashmiri separatists meet Pak Foreign Secy; Discuss Kashmir

New Delhi, Nov 14 (UNI) Kashmiri separatists, including hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, today met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and discussed the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

A four-member moderate Hurriyat delegation led by Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chief Yaseen Malik, Democratic Freedom Party Chief Shabir Ahmed Shah, besides Mr Geelani, held one-on-one meetings with Mr Khan at the Pakistan House here.

Mr Khan, who is holding official talks with his Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon here, was closeted for almost two hours with each group.

He was assisted by several Pakistani officials, including Director-General (South Asia) Jalil Abbas Jilani, Pakistan's outgoing High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan and High Commissioner-designate Shahid Malik.

After the meeting, Mr Geelani said he asked Pakistan to ensure that India ''fulfills its commitment to hold a plebiscite'' in Jammu and Kashmir, as part of the UN resolution on the vexed issue, and allow the ''people to decide their fate''.

''India must give the people of Jammu and Kashmir the opportunity to decide their own fate and they must decide on their own whether they want to stay with India or Pakistan,'' he said.

''India must accept Kashmir as a dispute and release all jailed Kashmiri people and withdraw its forces from Jammu and Kashmir to make the dialogue meaningful and result-oriented,'' he said.

The moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation impressed upon the Pakistan Foreign Secretary to take forward the dialogue process with India in the larger interest of peace in the southasian region.

''We welcome the resumed dialogue between India and Pakistan. It is a step in the right direction and it should be taken forward towards its logical end,'' Hurriayat delegation leader Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat said.

Prof Bhat said talks between India and Pakistan, India and the separatists and Pakistan and the separatists is a joint effort towards resolving the vexed issue.

''We are hopeful that the entire dialogue process will yield result to the satisfaction of all parties concerned and lasting peace will be restored in Jammu and Kashmir,'' Prof Bhat said.

Maulana Abbas Ansari, Bilal Ghani Lone and Aga Syed Hassan were the other members of moderate Hurriyat Conference delegation.

Amalgam Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq could not attend the meeting as he in Cairo to participate in the 56th Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs.

DFP president Shabir Shah, who held the first meeting with Mr Khan, raised the issue of demilitarisation and formation of a Working Group of representatives of India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir. ''We impressed upon Mr Khan to convey to the government of India to demilitarise Jammu and Kashmir at the block level. Custodial killings and human rights violations are rampant and demilitarisation will help infuse confidence among the people of the state,'' Mr Shah said.

He said he had urged Mr Khan to form a Working Group of the representatives of India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people to resolve the vexed issue.

''The formation of the working group would help in providing the benefits of the Confidence Building Measures to the people of the state.'' ''The confidence building measures taken by New Delhi and Islamabad have no impact at the ground level in Jammu and Kashmir.

I told the Pakistan Foreign Secretary to raise this issue with his Indian counterpart,'' he said.

Mr Malik, who was last to meet Mr Khan, also raised the issue the issue of involvement of the Kashmiri people in the dialogue process.

''Involvement of the people of Kashmir in the peace process was discussed at the meeting,'' he said.

Rejecting all CBMs between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, Mr Geelani said, ''right to self determination'' cannot be replaced.

''We reject all the roadmaps being put forward in the name of self-rule, autonomy, status quo or softening of Line of Control.

UN resolutions, which grant the people of Jammu and Kashmir the right of self-determination, is the only solution to the issue of Kashmir,'' he added.

About the Foreign Secretary-level talks, Mr Geelani, who held discussions with a Pakistani officials after almost two years, said he did not expect any movement forward on Kashmir.

Mr Geelani said he also raised the issue of human rights violations in Kashmir with Mr Khan.

UNI