India, Pakistan leaders should meet to resolve Kashmir issue: Mufti

Srinagar, April 22 (ANI): Peoples Democratic Party patron and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is hopeful that the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan will hold meet during the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit and has urged them to resume bilateral talks to resolve the Kashmir issue.

"We hope that in the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit, once again after New York both the leaders will get an opportunity to meet. We, on the behalf of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, request them to discuss the Kashmir issue in a substantive manner," said Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Thursday in a press conference.

The SAARC summit is scheduled to be held on April 28-29 in Bhutan.

India suspended talks with Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks in November 26, 2008 and senior diplomats held their first official dialogue in February, although no breakthrough emerged.

The PDP leader Sayeed also said that peace could not exist in Kashmir without dialogue between India and Pakistan.

"Till the time the Kashmir issue is not resolved with Pakistan, then lasting peace is not possible here," he said. (ANI)