Monday, June 20 2005 22:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Despite clear indications from India that it would not allow Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed to visit Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad today (Jun 20, 2005) said it would forward his name for permission to travel by the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus on June 30.

"The list of intending passengers to travel by the next Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus would be exchanged on June 21. My understanding is that Rashid had applied for permission and his name would be there on the list that will be exchanged tomorrow," Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told reporters in Islamabad.

There are indications that India might not give permission to Rashid, who claims himself to be a Kashmiri, to visit Jammu and Kashmir by the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus in the wake of reports that he had organised Kashmiri militant training camps at his farmhouse.

Jilani declined to react to Ministry of External Affairs statement expressing concern over reports about Rashid conducting the military training camps or to the reactions from Congress and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) opposing his visit.

As per his earlier plan Rashid wants to travel to Srinagar with a large media contingent.

His proposed visit came under cloud after media here quoted JKLF (Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front) Chairman Yasin Malik as saying on June 13 that Rashid had helped his group to run a militant camp in his farmhouse at Fateh Jung near Rawalpindi called "Freedom House" between 1988-90 in which 3,500 militants had been trained.

Malik later clarified that Rashid only extended hospitality to Kashmiri refugees. Rashid also denied that he had organised training camps for militants.