Hurriyat seeks date with PM

The meeting, the alliance thinks, would value-add its trip to Islamabad where it will meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and hopefully separatist and militant leadership in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir too. 8220;We hope we meet the Prime Minister before going to Pakistan,8221; Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said.

A three-member Hurriyat delegation led by Mirwaiz will leave for Pakistan on January 17 and so a meeting with the PM is expected 8220;very soon8221;, well before the PM8217;s scheduled visit to Philippines that begins on January 13. The other two members visiting Pakistan are Abdul Gani Bhat and Bilal Gani Lone.

Bhat, the former Hurriyat Chairman, had recently met Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz in New Delhi.

However, he denied reports that he had met with the Centre8217;s interlocutor on Kashmir, N N Vohra,

Bhat spoke of a favourable change in the Centre8217;s stand on Hurriyat. 8220;There is now a realisation that talks with Hurriyat are a way forward for the dialogue. And also that it is time to move forward on Kashmir,8221; Bhat told The Indian Express.

Asserting that Hurriyat was indispensable to the process, Bhat said the alliance 8220;could help build up on the ideas in circulation and take them to the Kashmiri people where the durability of any outcome will eventually be tested8221;. He, however, made it clear that the time to harp on the age-old ideas on Kashmir had long gone.

Bhat talked of an expanding constituency and a political consensus on Kashmir with the mainstream 8220;People8217;s Democratic Party and National Conference espousing new, innovative formulae on the state8221;.

The alliance hopes that its trip to PoK, where an attempt would be made to 8220;get people who matter on board8221; would turn the atmosphere more conducive for the ongoing settlement efforts.

In fact, senior Hurriyat leader Saleem Geelani who was recently in Pakistan for around four weeks is said to have already 8220;facilitated things on the ground8221; on this count. Significantly, Geelani, sources in the Hurriyat said, held talks with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen supremo Syed Salahuddin and other militant leadership short of Mushtaq Zargar, the Al Umar Chief released in exchange for the hostages of the IC-814 hijacked on December 24, 1999.

Geelani, sources said, also met Pakistan Prime Minister Showkat Aziz, Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, Mushahid Hussain and Ajazul Haque in addition to top PoK leadership. This is being seen as pre-visit bid by Hurriyat to build bridges with the PoK-based political and militant leadership who hold the key to improving the situation on this side of the Line of Control.