The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, April 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

J A M M U & K A S H M I R

Musharraf ready for talks in Srinagar
Srinagar, April 23
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has told a team of visiting Kashmiri lawyers that he was ready to hold talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Srinagar to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Militants burn 7 houses
Srinagar, April 23
Two persons, including a woman, were killed and seven houses were set on fire by militants while a militant surrendered along with arms and ammunition in the valley.

The police deploys a motorbike squad in front of the famous Raghunath Temple in Jammu city to counter any militant attack. The temple was attacked by unidentified Pakistani militants in the last week of March, killing nine persons, including three policemen.

Jawans of the Border Security Force (BSF) guard the border fencing on the Indo-Pak International Border in R. S. Pura Sector, 35 km west of Jammu, on Tuesday. The BSF restarted the fencing work last week to check border-crossing.
— PTI photos

YOUR TOWN

Srinagar

EARLIER STORIES

	J&K poll: bid to woo separatists April 23, 2002
	Kashmiri Pandits throng Ramji temple April 22, 2002
	6 ultras shot in encounter April 21, 2002
	Omar to be new NC President April 20, 2002
	Bhat has a peace plan, but won’t tell April 19, 2002
	NGO: withdraw case against Malik April 18, 2002
	LeT, Jaish ultras active again April 17, 2002
	Ultras maintain links with Pak agencies April 16, 2002
	Farooq swims in Dal as separatists meet April 15, 2002
	‘Detain PM’ under POTA April 14, 2002
	Lone’s passport restored April 13, 2002

Musharraf ready for talks in Srinagar

Srinagar, April 23
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has told a team of visiting Kashmiri lawyers that he was ready to hold talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Srinagar to resolve the Kashmir issue.

“I am ready to hold a meaningful dialogue with Mr Vajpayee anywhere to resolve the Kashmir issue,” General Musharraf told the four-member Kashmir Bar Association team which called on him during its visit to Pakistan earlier this month.

The lawyers were in Pakistan on the invitation of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association to take part in a seminar on “Peace through law”.

The Pakistan President is ready to visit Jammu and Kashmir provided Mr Vajpayee expressed his willingness to resolve the issue once and for all, said Mr Ghulam Nabi Hagroo, a member of the team which returned from Pakistan yesterday.

Mr Hagroo said they extended an invitation to him to visit Jammu and Kashmir and hold talks with Mr Vajpayee on the Kashmir issue.

“We suggested that both Heads of State should meet in Srinagar to find a lasting and peaceful solution to this vexed issue once and for all in the best interest of peace in the entire sub-continent,” he said, adding that “he accepted our invitation.”

He said the team did not meet any separatist leader in Pakistan. “We did not try to meet any since we had nothing to discuss with them,” he said.

However, they did meet several opposition leaders. Everyone was in favour of a peaceful settlement of the issue, he said.

When his attention was drawn to reports that they had gone to Pakistan to get approval from there to participate in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, he said these reports were ‘’totally wrong’’ and ‘’motivated’’.

“We have rejected these reports even from Pakistan and we again make it clear that there is no question of participating in the elections, a stand taken by the All-Party Hurriyat Conference,” he said. UNI

Militants burn 7 houses

Srinagar, April 23
Two persons, including a woman, were killed and seven houses were set on fire by militants while a militant surrendered along with arms and ammunition in the valley.

The body of Imran Mir, who was missing since April 21, was found at Shopian in Pulwama district of south Kashmir this morning, official sources said.

Another body of a woman Rafiqa, was found at Zakoora in the city outskirts today.

A militant Altaf Ahmad surrendered along with two AK rifles at Baramula.

A defence ministry spokesman said the militants set on fire seven houses in the frontier district of Kupwara on April 21 after the villagers had refused to extend any cooperation to them. UNI