A day before Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir will meet his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao here, he is expected to meet All Party Hurriyat Conference leaders and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at the Pakistan High Commission.
Sources said that separatist leaders have been sounded out by the Pakistan high commission apparently through deputy high commissioner Rifat Masood and the meeting was sealed by APHC leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq in an internal meeting in Srinagar three days ago. Pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Geelani is already in Delhi and is undergoing medical treatment. Agha Badgami and People?s Conference leader Bilal Lone are also expected to attend this meeting.
It is learnt that the Kashmiri separatists will emphasise on a tripartite dialogue on Kashmir rather than the on-going bilateral dialogue with home minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi.
Sources said that the APHC?s possible reversion to the demand to implement the UN resolutions on Kashmir, including plebiscite, is a fallout of the meeting of APHC leaders in PoK early this month. According to available inputs, the Pakistani authorities made it clear to the APHC leaders based in PoK that former President Pervez Musharraf?s four-point formula on Kashmir was no longer valid.
The APHC has been told that bilateral talks with New Delhi will serve no purpose and hence the focus should be on a demand for tripartite talks. The Hurriyat is expected to harden its stance vis a vis India?s concerns with the focus back on ?azaadi? rather than joint management of Kashmir through soft borders as proposed by Pervez Musharraf.