Allow Hurriyat leaders on bus: Pakistan tells India

Pakistan is ready to allow leaders from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to travel to India [ Images ] by the new bus service if India allows Hurriyat leaders to travel across to this country, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Thursday.

His comments came on being asked at a function in Lahore [ Images ] why Pakistan did not permit top Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ] politicians to travel by the inaugural bus service across the Line of Control [ Images ].

The Road to Peace

India has in theory allowed Hurriyat leaders to apply for special permits to travel by the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus.

Kasuri said the commencement of the bus service would provide Kashmiris on both sides a chance to start thinking about possible solutions to the Kashmir issue.

He said India and Pakistan have fought wars over Kashmir, but now "sanity has prevailed and hopefully this means a peaceful future for both countries."