Riaz Khan invites Kashmiri separatists to visit Pakistan

New Delhi, Nov 15 (UNI) Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan has invited Kashmiri separatists, including hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to visit his country at the earliest.

Sources said Mr Khan, who wrapped up two-day talks with his Indian counterpart Shiv Shanker Menon today, extended the invitation to visit Pakistan during his one-on-one meetings with separatists yesterday evening.

The Senior Pakistan diplomat is keen on Mr Geelani, who for the past almost two years has had strained relations with Islamabad, visiting the country, they said.

Indications are that Mr Geelani, who had accused Islamabad of diluting its stand on the Kashmir issue, will travel to Pakistan, the sources said.

The Pro-Pakistan secessionist had refused to travel to Pakistan in June 2005 when Kashmiri separatist leaders crossed over to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on June 2 Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus.

A four-member moderate Hurriyat delegation comprising Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Bilal Ghani Lone and Aga Syed Hassan, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chief Yaseen Malik, Democratic Freedom Party Chief Shabir Ahmed Shah, and Mr Geelani, held discussions with Mr Khan at the Pakistan House here yesterday.

The sources said the other secessionists will also travel to Pakistan soon.

Pakistan once again failed to unite warring Kashmiri separatist groups and persuade them to set aside their differences as they refused to meet Mr Khan together here last evening.

Islamabad has been trying for long to pursue the separatists to sink their differences and come together under one aegis ''in the larger interest of the Kashmir issue''.

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