New Delhi, Sept 15: US envoy to Pakistan Nancy Powell today held an hour-long meeting with Kashmir committee led by Ram Jethmalani who said the talks were part of a continuous process to exchange views on matters of common interests. While declining to divulge any details about the meeting, Jethmalani said the committee would soon visit Jammu and Kashmir and was ready to talk to Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who took over as the chief of the amalgam faction today, and JKLF's Yasin Malik. "We are ready to speak even to those who hold the gun."
On their meeting with Powell who was assisted by three American officials, Jethmalani said "all our meetings are held on condition of strict confidentiality and nothing is to be disclosed to the press .... We exchanged views on matters of common interests".
To repeated questions, he said "what we are doing will further our interests" and added that this was a meeting in the post-September 11 scenario of terrorism. "We want to understand their viewpoints and they ours."
Powell's meeting came close on the heels of a similar one US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca had with Kashmir committee on September 11.
Sources in the meeting said that committee members stressed on the need to put more pressure on Pakistan for putting an end to cross border terrorism and asserted this step would help a great deal in ending the hostilities between the two countries.
Bureau Report