ISLAMABAD - A seven-member delegation of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) led by Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is due on six-day visit to Pakistan on Saturday (today) for consultations on the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir. While Shabbir Ahmed Shah, another important APHC member is expected to reach on December 17th as he planned to travel by bus through the Line of Control (LoC). Other members of the delegation who would accompany the Chairman include Professor Abdul Ghani ‚ Maulana Abbas Ansari‚ Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi‚ Bilal Ghani Lone‚ Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Musaddiq Aadil.
The APHC delegation is visiting Pakistan on the invitation of Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and during their stay in Islamabad, they would meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Foreign Minister, Minister of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, Chairman Kashmir Committee, and leaders of various political parties including PML-N, PTI, Jamaat-i-Islami and MQM.
The delegation would also visit AJK capital Muzaffarabad and would meet President, Prime Minister and other important political leaders. The delegation would also visit a Kashmiri refugees camp.
According to APHC sources, this visit would be revival of interaction and consultations between Pakistani and Kashmir leadership after five years and would help boost efforts seeking for tripartite talks between Pakistan, India and Kashmiris towards resolution of the core issue in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiris and UN resolutions.
A recent survey suggests that 76 per cent of the people of Pakistan want resolution of the Kashmir dispute for peace and stability in the region.
In a related development, Chairman of the Special Committee of the Parliament on Kashmir, Maulana Fazlur Rahman has said that the Kashmiri people were victims of the Indian security forces.
In statement issued here on Friday, he said that they are being killed or detained for years and tortured without any judicial proceedings.
Women are dishonoured but the perpetrators go scot-free, he said.
He urged that the Indian officials, who played havoc in Held Kashmir and committed human rights violations there, should be proceeded against in the International Crimes Tribunal.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman said that India desired to crush the freedom struggle of Kashmiris.
Hence, it has deployed over 800,000 armed forces in Held Kashmir, he said.
Besides, the draconian laws, such as the Public Safety Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, etc have been enforced which gives a free hand to the Indian officials to do anything with the Kashmiris, he stated.