The government has decided to allow Hurriyat Conference leaders to board the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, if they apply for travel permits, even as army engineers prepares to launch a British-made Bailey bridge to pierce the LOC. Sources reveal that the decision was taken in a one-on-one meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and J-K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in New Delhi today. ‘‘Anybody can board this bus,’’ Mufti told Express. ‘‘If they wish to go, we will not stop them.’’ He also said that he apprised the PM of the progress of the road and the bridge, besides discussing other travel modalities. ‘‘The Prime Minister is going to flag off the first bus on April 7,’’ he said. To secure a permit for boarding the bus, a person will have to fill in six copies of the travel permit form and the papers will be sent for Pakistani approval only after five different central and state agencies have vetted them. When Mufti’s attention was drawn to the issue of security clearances of the separatist leaders, he said, ‘‘That is not a problem. We will not stop them.’’ Sources said the government might use back channels to woo the separatist leaders, who were either not issued travel documents or were averse to travelling on an Indian passport. And as the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus does not need a passport, the government thinks this might help them to get the separatists on board this peace initiative. The separatists, however, don’t seem to be very interested at this point. Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani categorically rejects any such move saying that he is against the opening of the road. ‘‘It is a deviation from our cause and we are against it,’’ he said. ‘‘Our boarding this bus is out of question. We have been opposing it from the very beginning.’’ Former Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said that ‘‘we want to go across to talk, not to become laughing stock on the bus’’. He, however, said his Hurriyat faction will decide only after Mirwaiz Umer Farooq returns from Washington. The only supportive voice was Moulvi Abbas Ansari. ‘‘If we are allowed on without any passport and visa restriction, we have no problems,’’ he said. People here, however, are watching the fast changing developments regarding the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus keenly after President Musharraf expressed a desire to travel on this road. But it is learnt that the J-K government is not in favour of Musharraf taking Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus to India. ‘‘Though we welcome it, the state government is apprehensive that the situation might go out of control,’’ a source said. The apprehension, he said, is that the General may attract massive crowds for his welcome, which will then complicate the process. Meanwhile, the Indo-Pak bonhomie is at its peak on the Line of Control, where both the countries are busy in improving the last stretch of the road and replacing the 115-year-old KDK or Wood Bridge with a British-made Bailey bridge. There had been a series of flag meetings between the officers of the two armies to discuss and finalise various modalities. Manmohan extra run for Pervez
