A three-day Indo-Pak informal meet on Kashmir began in Kathmandu on Saturday.
Representatives from both sides of the Line of Control, including a Hurriyat Conference delegation, politicians, former bureaucrats, former army chiefs and journalists, are taking part in the conference being organised by US-based think tank Pugwash.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Abdul Ghani Bhat are representing the Hurriyat Conference at the meet.
"It is a very positive step towards settling the Kashmir dispute," said Justice Abdul Majeed Malik, chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation League based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "I think we shall move forward after the conference," he said. He hopes the meet will facilitate key developments that will improve relations between India and Pakistan.
Abdul H Nayyar from Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, said the conference will try to understand the various points of view on Kashmir. "Kashmir is a very complex problem and to resolve it we need understanding, flexibility and tolerance," he said.
The issue should be resolved on the basis of the 1972 Shimla agreement, said Bhim Singh, chairman of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party. "The people of Kashmir are non-negotiable. Their fate cannot be decided either in London, New York or Kathmandu," he said.
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