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Hurriyat not insisting on joining summit

"We represent the genuine wishes of the people of the state and history is witness that neither Mahatma Gandhi nor Nelson Mandela nor Yaseer Arafat, who led struggles against foreign repression, contested any elections."

"We don't want to be involved in the summit now. Our only demand is that when the final solution to the Kashmir issue comes about, the people of the state are a party to it," founder chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told the Press Trust of India (PTI) after a meeting with the Pakistani press.

The Pakistani press corps, which has descended on the Capital to cover Sunday's summit between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, had organised a meet-the-press with Hurriyat leaders on Friday afternoon.

Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat addressed the media. Notably, officials of the Pakistan High Commission refused to allow Indian and foreign journalists to enter the venue at Hotel Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi.

The Mirwaiz said it would be 'illogical' and 'insane' if attempts were made to hammer out a solution to the Kashmir problem without the participation of Kashmiris.

Asserting that the Hurriyat Conference represented the broader spectrum of wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "India and Pakistan should understand that Kashmir is the main irritant in normalising relations between the two countries."

Confirming that the meeting with Gen Musharraf would take place before the reception being hosted in his honour on Saturday evening by the Pakistani high commissioner in Delhi, the Mirwaiz said, "We will raise some issues, including the involvement of Kashmiris in the talks, maybe at a later stage."

About the recent political outburst against the invitation from the high commission to Hurriyat leaders, he said, "We want to make it clear that our conglomerate hopes that relations between the two countries is cordial."

However, in order to achieve that, both the countries will have to address the core issue of Kashmir in a tripartite manner, the Mirwaiz added.

Terming the opening of two border posts in Jammu and Kashmir to facilitate easy travel on both sides as putting the 'cart before the horse', Umer said, "This could be one of the confidence building measures but not a solution to the 50-year-old problem."

PTI

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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