Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who will lead the All Parties Hurriyat Conference delegation during their meeting with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Monday evening at his 7 Race Course Road residence, on Sunday said the solution to Kashmir lay only in the tripartite talks involving the people of Kashmir, Pakistan and India.
Speaking to the media on his arrival in New Delhi, Mirwaiz said that as far as Hurriyat is concerned there is no change in the stand that it has taken.
"Our stand in the past has been, and still is, that permanent solution to the Kashmir problem can be found only by involving the people of Kashmir in the process of dialogue. At the moment, the atmosphere for holding talks is very conducive and we hope of a constructive and fruitful interaction," he said.
About the prime minister's invitation, Farooq said, "The negotiations had been going on at various levels for sometime. So when we got the invitation from prime minister I was not at all surprised," he told rediff.com in an informal chat soon after his arrival in Delhi.
Former APHC chairman Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Fazal Haq Qureshi accompanied Mirwaiz.
He also lauded the progress made by India and Pakistan.
"I believe the meeting with Prime Minister Singh, after our talks with the Pakistan government, will complete a cycle," he said.
When asked if he had any solution to the problem, he said that he had none. "You do not find solution to the problem that has lasted 57 years. We must find a solution that is acceptable to the people of India, Pakistan and Kashmir," he said.
While Bilal Lone, another member of the delegation, has already reached Delhi, Maulana Abbas Ansari would be arriving in New Delhi only on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a meeting with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Centre's pointsman on Kashmir N N Vohra.
The meeting lasted for 45 minutes in which the prime minister was briefed about the outcome of previous meetings between the separatists amalgam and NDA government in January and March last year.
Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Pakistan S K Lambha was also present at the meeting.
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