RAWALPINDI, NOV 25: Keen to emerge as an emissary of peace between India and Pakistan, Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone is treading cautiously in his public discourses on Kashmir while in Pakistan.``Kashmiris are grateful to the people of Pakistan for all their help (to militants). But now I expect you not to ask us to pay a price for this,'' he told a gathering of Muslim Conference activists recently. Lone was subtly telling his audience that the final ``choice'' regarding the political future of Kashmir be left to the people of the state, and that Pakistan should not dictate a choice to them. The Muslim Conference incidentally favours accession of Kashmir to Pakistan and is known to support a plethora of insurgent groups active in the Valley.Immeditely after his son's wedding, Lone launched his proposed month-long campaign in Pakistan and especially, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. He has a long list of invitations and is keen to meet the country's chief executive, General Pervez Mussharraf. The General is yet to respond but Lone's aides are hopeful. Lone is also scheduled to travel across PoK, where he would address rallies, including those organised by pro-independence parties.Sources close to the Hurriyat leader told The Indian Express that Lone is conducting meetings with several Pakistani officials and also separatist leaders.At such meetings, Lone keeps anti-India rhetoric to the minimum, even praising Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for his approach on Kashmir and for fecilitating his visit to Pakistan to attend his son's marriage. Gone is the image of a bellicose Lone, who never tired of badmouthing India and its security forces in Kashmir.To show that he is ready to give a hearing to both sides, Lone has even equated Pakistan's occupation of Kashmir with India's claim on it. This remark has surprised many a Kashmiri. ``It's for the first time any Hurriyat leader has dared challenge Pakistan this way,'' said a Kashmir-based journalist accompanying Lone.Lone's sober approach has also surprised Pakistanis. Journalists from Pakistani media were even asking Indian counterparts if ``Lone was on some Indian mission''.``The offer (of ceasefire) is just a small mercy shown by India,'' he said recently at a dinner meeting attended by Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. ``Nevetheless, it should be welcomed and augmented with confidence-building measures from both sides.''Lone's troupe comprises around 30 activists of the Peoples' Conference, mediapersons and personal Hindu friends. At a reception hosted by PoK Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mehmood for Lone and his delegation, the Hurriyat leader made it a point to introduce his Kashmiri Pandit friends to his Pakistani hosts. He also keenly presents the non-Kashmiri delegates at his meetings to dispel the widely held impression here that Kashmir is a problem about ``Kashmiri Muslims alone''. MUMBAI: Two of the four Lashkar-e-Toiba militants arrested from a hideout in Thane on Thursday are suspected to have been involved in both the Chittisingpora massacre in March and the Amarnath carnage in August, the police here say. The identities of the militants are being ascertained with the authorities in Kashmir, a senior police officer informed. He said there is a strong suspicion that both the leader of the four-member squad, Abu Saifulla alias Hamza, and Mohammed Shakeel could be involved in the massacres.Among the articles recovered from the men were three AK-47s, two magazines and three hand grenades carrying markings showing these originated from Pakistani ordnance factories.
