Top separatists invited to int'l meet on Kashmir in US

Srinagar, June 22 (UNI) Several senior separatist and political leaders have been invited to attend a two-day international conference on Kashmir in the United States from July 26.

The conference, organised by the US-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers (AHL) and the Kashmiri American Council (KAC)- Kashmir Center, would be held in Capitol Hill, Washington DC.

The conference, the seventh such international Kashmir peace meet, has been titled: ''Peace Process in South Asia: Resolving Longstanding Kashmir Dispute''.

Chairpersons of both hard-line and moderate factions of the Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) president Shabir Ahmed Shah are some of the prominent separatist leaders invited to the conference.

Jammu and Kashmir Transport Minister Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen and CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami are among the mainstream political leaders likely to attend the meet.

Congressmen Yvette Clarke (Democratic from New York) and Joseph Pitts (Republican from Pennsylvania) are the Congressional hosts of the conference, according to the organisers.

They said the primary objective of the conference was to explore all possible options to settle the Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of all the three parties concerned - India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

''We welcome talks between India and Pakistan and hope the two governments fully recognise that the Kashmir dispute is primarily about the right to self-determination of the people of the state, and that there can be no peaceful negotiated settlement without the full and active participation of the people living on both sides of the Line of Control as well as those belonging to the Kashmiri Diaspora,'' the organisers added.

UNI