Kashmir separatist leaders agree to visit Pakistan

SRINAGAR, India - Leaders of the moderate faction of Indian Kashmir's main political separatist alliance said yesterday they had accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan for talks to help end the Kashmir dispute.

The decision of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference came after Islamabad invited Kashmiri separatists to travel across the frontier on a new bus link between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir launched last month.

"We have decided to visit Pakistan on June 2 by bus. It will be a big step towards the resolution of the Kashmir dispute," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of Hurriyat's moderate faction, told a news conference.

"We will talk to militant and separatist political leaders across (the border) and we will try to resume talks with India after we return from Pakistan," Farooq said after a meeting of Hurriyat leaders in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir.

Hurriyat bands about two dozen Kashmiri political separatist groups, some of whom are seeking Kashmir's independence and others its merger with Pakistan.

The alliance has been considerably weakened after a hardline faction, backed by militant groups, opposed moderates who supported peace talks with New Delhi and walked out of the panel in 2003.

India has in the past been reluctant to allow Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan.

However, a visit to New Delhi by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last month and his talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh provided new momentum to a peace process between the two countries.

An Indian security official told Reuters the government had no objections to the Hurriyat visit.

There was no word yet from Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of the hardline Hurriyat faction, on whether he would also accept Pakistan's invitation.

Kashmir is at the heart of more than half-a-century of enmity between India and Pakistan, both of whom claim the scenic, mountainous state in full.

The neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the dispute. India also blames Pakistan for a 15-year revolt against its rule in Kashmir which has killed more than 45,000 people so far.

- REUTERS