Hurriyat ready for talk with PM to resolve Kashmir issue: Mirwaiz

Jammu, Jan 15 (UNI) The moderate faction of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), while stressing to involve the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the dialogue process, said the organisation is ready to talk with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Addressing a seminar here last evening, chairman of APHC Mirwaiz Umar Farooq suggested the existing cease-fire along the Line of Control (LoC) should be extended in Kashmir so as to create a conducive atmosphere.

The Mirwaiz stressed the need for institutionalisation of on-going peace process. ''The ongoing truce has created an atmosphere for initiating dialogue so internal ceasefire should be announced so that common masses get benefited,'' he said.

Although the Mirwaiz appreciated the on-going dialogue process between New Delhi and Islamabad, he cautioned that this effort will prove futile if people of the state were not involved in the talks.

He said the dialogue was the only way to solve all problems and ''we are ready for that''. There is no military solution to the Kashmir issue, it is a political matter and should be solved politically, he added.

The moderate Hurriyat leader further said his party does not believe in violence, ''so we are initiating dialogue among different sections of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.'' ''We are ready to talk with the Prime Minister, before or after his Pakistan visit as the two nations agreed that self-governance could be the finest durable solution in the prevailing circumstances and we have to develop a consensus among us on this,'' Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, another top Hurriyat leader also said.

UNI