Pakistan rolled out the red carpet for the moderate leaders of the Hurriyat Conference when they crossed into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir from Srinagar today on a visit that will see them interact with various leaders, including President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on Saturday. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who’s leading the delegation, arrived with six others of his faction, JKLF chairman Yasin Malik and a representative of Shabir Shah’s JK Democratic Freedom Party. In all, nine separatist leaders stepped into PoK while the hardiners led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani chose to turn down the Pakistan government’s invitation. The Pakistan government kept its promise of according a warm welcome to the group. PoK Prime Minister Sikandar Hayat was at hand as was the Pakistani Army band to welcome the leaders when they crossed the Aman Setu (peace bridge) linking the two parts of Kashmir. Besides, Mirwaiz and Malik, others to cross over included Abdul Gani Bhat, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Fazal-ul haq Qureshi, G M Bhat and Mohd Abdullah Tari of Shabir Shah’s party. Interestingly, while the Hurriyat leaders crossed the bridge together, Malik and Tari, walked a little behind reflecting their separate identity. The cross over was described by Mirwaiz Umar as a ‘‘big step’’ in the peace process which he said could form the basis for a ‘‘triangular dialogue’’ between India, Pakistan and Hurriyat Conference. Lone said the delegation had ‘‘no high hopes’’ from the visit as the Kashmir issue was old and complex. ‘‘But this is the first step’’ towards resolution of the problem, he said. Qureshi hoped everything would go well with the visit and it will bear positive results. Tari said he saw the visit with hope. Advocating continuation of the peace process, he favoured increase in exchanges across the LoC. He said his leader Shabir Shah wanted to take an all-religion delegation to PoK but the plan could not take off. Malik, who was in the first batch of militants to cross the LoC into PoK 17 years ago to get training and lauch a militant movement in Jammu and Kashmir, recalled that he had sneaked through the frontier eight times. Malik refused to board the bus from Salamabad to Kaman Bridge. ‘‘Since we are yet to achieve anything, it is a time to ponder seriously. There’s no need to go ga ga about the event. I feel celebrations are too premature at this juncture,’’ he said. Earlier, the separatist leaders left Srinagar in a convoy of private vehicles in a procession accompanied by supporters and boarded the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus at Salamabad, about 18 km from the LoC, to reach the Kaman Post, the last point on the Indian side.
