Hurriyat delegation calls on prime minister

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference team in Delhi for talks on Kashmir with Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, on Friday met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his 7 Race Course residence.

The team led by APHC chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari had on Thursday held the first round of talks with Advani. The round-two will take place in March.

Also Read Hurriyat: The Men Who Matter 'Advani showed great sincerity' Vajpayee is an apostle of peace: Hurriyat chief

This is the first meeting between the Hurriyat and an Indian prime minister.

Ahead of the meeting, former APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, told PTI that the Hurriyat has full faith in the prime minister's peace initiative with Pakistan.

Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had met in Islamabad during the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit early this month and decided to resume peace talks.

"We are going to tell him [Vajpayee] that the beginning has made in Islamabad, the entire leadership in Kashmir, the
people in Kashmir are with the process and we intend to see that this dialogue process is taken forward," he said.

"Better relations between India and Pakistan do have a direct impact on the situation in the state [Jammu and Kashmir]," he said.

The other members of the team are Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Lone and Fazal-ul-Haq Qureshi.