The Kashmiri delegation walk out of the Indian Home Ministry after a meeting with Advani (AFP)

NEW DELHI, January 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In an unprecedented move in four years, Indian government officials came face to face Thursday, January 22, with leaders of Kashmiri independence-seekers and agreed all forms of violence must end.

Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who led government officials into the discussions, later said the separatists would pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday, January 23, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"It was agreed that the only way forward is to ensure that all forms of violence at all levels should come to an end," said a joint statement, issued after two and half hours of talks between Advani and five leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the 23-party separatist coalition in Kashmir.

"It (also) was agreed that today's meet was the first significant step in the dialogue process initiated by the government of India and a step-by-step approach would lead to resolution of all outstanding issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir.

"The deputy prime minister endorsed (Hurriyat's) view that the role of the gun should be replaced by the sound of politics," it said.

The BBC's Adam Mynott said the meeting would not have happened without recent peace moves between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

In November, India and Pakistan, who fought two wars over Kashmir, agreed to a ceasefire along their shared border.

Earlier this month, they agreed to discuss Kashmir as part of peace talks due in February.

Advani also said New Delhi would study the Hurriyat's long-standing demand for the release of political prisoners in Kashmir.

"I have said that cases of prisoners would be reviewed. Those accused of heinous crimes would not be considered but others, yes," he said.

Advani was non-committal on whether the Hurriyat leaders reiterated their demand that they also be allowed to go to Pakistan for talks.

"I don't think I should quote what they said in the two-and-a-half hours. The synopsis is fairly reflected in the joint statement," he said.

Hurriyat chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari had ahead of the meeting warned against expectations of quick results.

"Things do not happen with just a click of the fingers and so we have to work hard," the 64-year-old Ansari told AFP earlier.

But he added that he was going into the meeting with an open mind toward discussions over Kashmir, where more than 40,000 people have died since the launch of an independence drive in 1989.

Besides Ansari, other members of the team were Umar Farooq and Abdul Gani Bhat, both former Hurriyat chiefs, low-profile leader Fazal Haque Qureshi and Bilal Lone, the elder son of assassinated moderate separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone.

According to the BBC News Online,  Shabir Ahmed Shah, chairman of the moderate Democratic Freedom Party, described the dialogue as "much ado about nothing".

"We thought that the Indian Government might have changed its attitude after the Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) conference," he said.

"But that has not become evident after today's meeting."

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who heads another faction of the Hurriyat, said his stand had been vindicated by the meeting.

"We are fed up with talk of confidence-building, " he said. "The real issue is the occupation of Jammu and Kashmir by Indian troops. Unless there is headway towards resolving the basic problem, addressing the incidental issues will not help."

Thursday's talks mark the first official contact between the two sides since August 2000 when senior commanders of the Hizbul Mujahedin met top home ministry officials after the group announced a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir.

The negotiations deadlocked when the Pakistan-based leadership of Hizbul withdrew the ceasefire within a fortnight and India refused to involve Pakistan in talks over Kashmir.