Narendra Modi-Nawaz Sharif meeting a good beginning: Hurriyat Conference

SRINAGAR: Moderate Hurriyat Conference today said the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif was a good beginning for improving relations between the two countries.

"It is a matter of satisfaction that the dialogue has been formalised and that too on the occasion of swearing-in ceremony (of Narendra Modi)," Hurriyat chairman Mirwiaz Umar Farooq said.

He, however, said the two countries needed to discuss the Kashmir issue for any forward movement in the dialogue process.

Mirwaiz said it was heartening that the two countries were going to start Foreign Secretary-level talks in near future and expressed hope this initiative would take the dialogue process in a positive direction.

The hardline Hurriyat Conference, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, did not immediately react to the Modi-Sharif meeting saying the amalgam would meet tomorrow to analyse the development.

"The Majlis-e-Shoora (Advisory council) will meet tomorrow to analyse the outcome of the meeting between Modi and Sharif.

"We will comment on the development only after that," a Hurriyat spokesman said.

The Hurriyat faction, headed by Shabir Ahmad Shah, termed the meeting as a good beginning but asserted India and Pakistan should focus on resolution of the Kashmir issue.

"Meetings that will focus on trade, travel and commerce will yield nothing concrete for the two countries unless heads of the two countries make Kashmir a core issue on the agenda of their meetings," Shah said.