Top Kashmiri separatist leaders said Saturday they could help Pakistan and India resolve their decades-old territorial dispute over the Kashmir region, The Associated Press reported. "We have come here with some proposals," said Umar Farooq, leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, or APHC. "We will discuss them (the proposals) with Pakistan before making them public," he told reporters after arriving in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The APHC is an alliance of religious and political groups in India's portion of Kashmir. On Saturday, Farooq insisted that Pakistan and India should make no decision on the Kashmir issue without consulting the Kashmiri people. The separatists leaders will meet with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, foreign ministry officials and intellectuals during their four-day stay in Islamabad. Yasin Malik, one of the Kashmiri political leaders said, "This is not such an issue that cannot be resolved. You only need sincere and serious efforts to do it." On Saturday, the nine separatist leaders were received by Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affair Khusru Bakhtyar upon their arrival in two helicopters from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's part of Kashmir. India and Pakistan last year began holding peace talks to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir. The separatist leaders have come to Islamabad after getting special permission from New Delhi to share proposals with Pakistani leaders in an attempt to help resolve the lingering dispute.
