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Islamabad: Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, a prominent political leader from Indian Kashmir on Monday held talks with Pakistani leaders on ways to resolve the decades-old Kashmir dispute.
Farooq, the head of the Srinagar-based All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), and members of his delegation, currently on a visit here, had separate meetings with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
Talking to the media after the talks, the APHC chairman called on India to reciprocate Pakistan's desire and efforts towards finding a just solution to the Kashmir row.
Mutual effort
"You cannot clap with one hand. Pakistan and its people want the resolution of the dispute and India will have to abandon its inflexible attitude," the Kashmiri leader said.
Farooq said that Kashmir was a humanitarian issue involving the future of 40 million people living in its Indian- and Pakistan-controlled parts, who had been struggling for their rights to determine their fate.
According to an official report, the prime minister told the APHC delegation that Pakistan would continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support towards a settlement of the dispute in line with the wishes of Kashmir's people.
Farooq highly appreciated that the APHC delegation was invited to Pakistan soon after the formation of the new government in the country.
He paid tributes to slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and said it was during her government that APHC got observer status at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
No substitute
The APHC chairman said that new elections would be held in the Indian Kashmir in September but emphasised that polls "cannot be a substitute for our right to self-determination".
He said his organisation supports the peace process between Pakistan and India and called for accelerating its pace in order to find a solution to the Kashmir tangle.
After the APHC team's talks with Zardari and other PPP leaders, a joint statement vowed to strengthen relations between the two sides.
The statement, read out by PPP secretary general Jehangir Badar, said delegations would be exchanged on regular basis for exchange of views.
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