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The government will not allow Hurriyat leaders to meet Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, when he arrives here for bilateral talks, at the invitation of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a top official of the Prime Minister's Office said on Wednesday.
"The government has said that the Hurriyat leaders should first talk to central interlocutor (on Kashmir) K C Pant. They will not be allowed to meet the general, when he arrives here. They (the Hurriyat leaders) are Indian citizens and they will have to abide by the law of the land," the official pointed out.
Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat had recently asserted that since Kashmiris were directly involved in talks relating to Jammu & Kashmir, senior party leaders would meet Musharraf and apprise him of their point of view.
On Hurriyat leaders meeting Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jahangir Qazi and discussing the Kashmir issue, the official said the government was fully aware about that.
"If the government wanted to prevent these Hurriyat members from meeting the high commissioner, it would have done so. Now the government has a central interlocutor on J&K and they have to talk to him. They will not be allowed to take the law into their hands," he pointed out.
He indicated that, if necessary, the Hurriyat leaders would be taken into "preventive custody".
"Of course, it is our right to meet the senior leaders (Vajpayee and Musharraf), who will be thrashing out the Kashmir issue. We want to meet Vajpayee and if Musharraf agrees to meet us, we will do so," said Hurryat spokesman Abdul Majid Banday.
However, the PMO official maintained that whenever a foreign dignitary visited India, it was the government (external affairs ministry and the PMO) which prepared their schedule in India.
"When an Indian leader goes to Pakistan, his schedule is prepared by the government in Islamabad. Therefore, there is no question of the Hurriyat leaders meeting General Musharraf," the official pointed out.
While External Affairs and Defence Minister Jaswant Singh recently stressed that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India, Musharraf iterated his country's stance that Kashmir was a "core issue" which had to be addressed at his summit meeting with Vajpayee.
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