Saturday, September 17 2005 09:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has met Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf here and discussed the Kashmir issue, days after the amalgam leader held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

"This is our attempt to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue so that we could see a peaceful South Asia," Mirwaiz told PTI after an over hour-long meeting with Musharraf, who was here to attend the United Nations General Assembly session, last evening (Sept 16, 2005).

He said he had kept the amalgam's viewpoint before the Pakistan President and also discussed the Hurriyat's meeting with Prime Minister Singh on September six.

Terming this meeting as a Hurriyat effort of having a triangular dialogue on Kashmir simultaneously with India and Pakistan, Mirwaiz expressed satisfaction that both Singh and Musharraf were holding discussions with the amalgam regarding the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

Mirwaiz said the Hurriyat wanted the Kashmiri leaders to be associated with the talks which has not happened as yet but the fact that both Singh and Musharraf are talking to them shows that Kashmiris are being indirectly associated with the Indo-Pak dialogue on the Kashmir issue.

This is the third meeting of the Hurriyat Chairman with the Pakistan President this year. Earlier they had met in April when Musharraf came to Delhi to watch an Indo-Pak cricket match and later in Islamabad when the Kashmiri separatist leaders had crossed over to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus.

Mirwaiz was here to attend the Organisation of Islamic Conference meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session. Hurriyat Conference has status of an observer in the forum.