Srinagar: Leaders of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference would be formally applying for travel documents soon to visit Pakistan.

Spotlight: Kashmir is NOT negotiable

"Most of our leaders have already applied for passports and others are doing it in coming days", Hurriyat sources said today (Nov 28, 2004).

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his recent visit to Kashmir had asked the separatists to formally apply for the travel documents for consideration.

Among the four executive committee members of Hurriyat, acting chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and former chairman Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari possess passports but the Central Government has impounded those.

Mirwaiz was recently granted temporary and country specific passport for visiting Jeddah and other places.

Former chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat does not have the passport while another senior executive member Bilal Gani Lone has the travel documents.

Mirwaiz had recently said that going to Pakistan was not a condition for continuing talks with the centre.

However, he insisted that visiting Pakistan was a requirement for everlasting peace and permanent solution to the Kashmir issue.