Maulavi Abbas Ansari, the newly elected chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, on Wednesday said that when India and Pakistan get together for a summit-level meeting to discuss Kashmir, they will have to discuss the entire Kashmir -- the part on the Indian side as also the part under Pakistani control.
Talking to rediff.com on phone from Srinagar, Ansari said this has been the APHC's stand right from the beginning.
"We are talking about the united Kashmir and not the divided one. We want that people of both the Indian Kashmir and Kashmir occupied by Pakistan should be consulted before taking any decision on this matter," he said.
An APHC delegation led by the Maulavi will visit New Delhi next week to hold talks with prominent politicians and members of Parliament. Ansari said the delegation will stay in Delhi as long as necessary to hold "talks with friends."
"We want to discuss the ongoing developments in the Indo-Pak relationship and how a solution can be found to the vexed problem of Kashmir," he said.
He did not clarify who these friends are. "You would get to know who are we meeting when we reach Delhi on August 4/5 and start meeting politicians and others," he said.
When asked if the delegation will also meet the Union government's representative N N Vohra, the Maulvi said: "No, we have no plan to meet Vohra during our stay in Delhi. He does not figure in the list of friends that we intend to meet. He is a government official who has been nominated by the government of India to hold talks with political parties of Jammu and Kashmir. What can we talk to a paid servant of the Union government?"
About a recent meeting between Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of Jamiat-e-Islami of Pakistan in New Delhi, he said: "He (the Mirwaiz) did not tell us what transpired [at the meeting]. But we know aman ke liye fiza sazgar hai (a favourable wind is blowing for peace).
