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| India-Pakistan |
| Hurriyat offers to broker truce with PoK rebels |
| 2002-06-19 |
| Indian Kashmir's main separatist alliance on Wednesday asked that its leaders be allowed to visit Pakistan occupied territory to negotiate a ceasefire to help resolve the half-century dispute. Abdul Gani Bhat, the chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, said members of the alliance wanted to travel to Pakistan occupied Kashmir to meet with leaders of the "mujahedin". "We will negotiate peace with them and a peaceful resolution to the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir," Bhat told reporters in Srinagar. "We would want a ceasefire to happen," Bhat said. "Obviously if a forward movement is intended, we will have to give peace a chance." Until they can get some more arms and ammunition in there... The Hurriyat, comprising two dozen groups that favour either independence or its accession to Pakistan, had urged Pakistan-backed rebels to reciprocate a unilateral ceasefire on offensive operations India announced in November 2000. But most militants spurned the request and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee withdrew the ceasefire after six months. Since fire hadn't ceased... During the truce Hurriyat leaders also asked to travel to Pakistan, a request India denied. Bhat said the Hurriyat had wanted to convert Vajpayee's ceasefire "into a meaningful, purposeful and substantive political process. But the visit for one reason or the other did not happen." Probably had something to do with all the dead bodies. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |