Kashmiri separatist leader Shaikh Abdul Aziz Sunday demanded the withdrawal of Indian forces from the embattled Himalayan state of Kashmir.
"Peace cannot return to the region unless India pulls out its occupation forces and enters into a meaningful dialogue involving Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders," Aziz told a well-attended wedding reception of his brother Shaikh Yaqoob here.
Aziz, a member of the executive council of All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC), arrived in Pakistan last week on a private visit.
Prominent among the guests were Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, several other ministers and the chief executive of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Barristar Sultan Mahmood.
On Friday Aziz met Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and held a series of meetings with the Kashmiri separatist leaders.
He said the Indian offer of talks to Kashmiri groups would serve no purpose and demanded tripartite talks to find a solution to the 53-year old conflict.
Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, has caused two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
Dialogue between the two nuclear rivals was suspended following a bitter 10-week border conflict in the Kargil region of Kashmir in 1999.
The Indian zone of the Muslim-majority state has been wracked by a 12-year insurgency that has claimed more than 34,000 lives, according to Indian figures. Separatist leaders say the death toll is twice as high – ISLAMABAD (AFP)
