The Hurriyat Conference has asked Islamabad to facilitate a meeting between the Ram Jethmalani-headed Kashmir Committee and its counterpart in Pakistan headed by Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, former premier of PoK.‘‘If New Delhi and Islamabad just start talking to each other, it would be enough for the Hurriyat to announce a major change in its stand on the Kashmir issue,’’ said Hurriyat leader Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, after a five-hour meeting with Pakistani deputy high commissioner Jalil Ahmed Gilani today. However, Bhat refused to divulge any change in the Hurriyat’s strategy at this stage. Bhat was accompanied by four other Hurriyat leaders at today’s meeting. Interestingly, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, was missing, ostensibly because he was caught in a meeting with American and German diplomats. Umer, who has been distancing himself from the Pakistani establishment of late, is scheduled to attend the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) foreign ministers’ conference in New York.Stating that he had pinned high hopes on the Jethmalani panel since it ‘‘reflected the growing passion among Indian and Pakistani intelligentsia to find an amicable solution to the Kashmir imbroglio’’, Bhat said such initiatives would put pressure on the Centre to address the issue realistically.
