'Hurriyat holds key to ending violence'

NEW DELHI, DEC. 10. The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) today said the ``key'' to stopping what India termed cross-border terrorism lay with the amalgamation of leaders and it was for New Delhi to decide whether it would allow them to go to Pakistan for holding consultations with the militant groups.

``If they (militants) listen, which I am sure they will, and see reason in what we say, I trust the ice will break,'' the APHC chairman, Mr. Abdul Gani Bhat, told PTI.

Mr. Bhat said, ``it is high time the roar of the gun be mixed with the noise of politics,'' adding ``to be very honest the goal of the Hurriyat and the mujahideen is the same. While we fight with argument, they fight with the gun.'' `This is to say that there has to be an interaction between the mujahideen and the politicians and this is the rationale behind our proposal to talk to the boys in that part of Kashmir (Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir).''

``The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has said that the Government would consider sending us to Pakistan. Let him decide, we are not going to ask for favours,'' he said when asked to state the APHC proposal.

The long-standing dispute could trigger a nuclear catastrophe if the peace process initiated recently by India failed to make headway, he warned. ``Now is the time to do it (resolve the Kashmir issue) and move forward with a direction so as to banish the ghost of atomic war in South Asia,'' the Hurriyat chairman said.

Alleging that the belligerent attitude of India and Pakistan had led to the development of these deadly weapons, Mr. Bhat said, ``I do not understand the logic behind developing atomic devices in India and then in Pakistan where we need desperately to embark on poverty-alleviation programmes.''

About the recent peace initiatives of India and Pakistan, he said, ``we do not have to talk peace. We will have to buy it. To buy peace, we will have to forget the bitter yesterday and capture the better tomorrow.''

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