Just over 12 hours before the scheduled departure of an All Parties Hurriyat Conference delegation to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, confusion persisted on Wednesday on whether they would be allowed to travel to Islamabad to meet Pakistani leaders.
While in Srinagar senior Hurriyat leader Moulvi Abbas Ansari said the delegation members would get their travel permits and passports shortly, Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Navtej Sarna said if the Hurriyat leaders travel beyond PoK, the onus for the visit will be on Pakistan.
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While a travel permit allows a person to enter PoK, any travel beyond into Pakistan would require him/her to carry a passport.
Sarna confirmed that some Hurriyat leaders have applied for passports and their requests are being processed. He, however, said he had no knowledge of how many passports were being processed.
"The position of the government is that it is willing to consider request for travel by any Indian national to Muzaffarabad and other parts across the Line of Control by the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus," Sarna said.
He said the Hurriyat leaders' requests for travel documents are being processed in accordance with the understanding reached between India and Pakistan which specifies that the travel on the basis of travel permits issued by the two sides would be limited to the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
"If some Hurriyat leaders have been invited to travel to Islamabad, as reported, outside the provision of the above understanding, the onus for this lies with the Pakistani authorities," he said.
In Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said the Hurriyat leaders should be allowed to travel to Pakistan. "We have no objection if they [the Hurriyat leaders] want to travel to Delhi and hold talks with the Indian leadership," he said and added, "for purposeful talks, you have to talk to all the parties concerned."
With inputs from Mukhtar Ahmed in Srinagar