January 4: The 12th SAARC Summit, a historic opportunity for Pakistan and India to build on peace moves, opens in Islamabad. During the summit, the SAARC leaders discuss a 6-point agenda finalized by their foreign ministers for South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), additional protocol on terrorism and social charter, aimed at social development and poverty alleviation. Prime minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee meet on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, the first direct talks between leaders of the two neighboring countries in more than two years.
January 7: UK Prime Minister Tony Blair urges Pakistan and India to hold 'proper, meaningful' dialogue to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. 'Both countries in these very difficult times understand the need to defeat terrorism and resolve difficult issues through dialogue and partnership”, says Blair.
January 12: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, in a televised address to the nation, calls for a peaceful end to the dispute over Kashmir and for a renewed spirit of national unity. He says, “Kashmir runs in our blood. No Pakistani can afford to sever links with Kashmir. We will continue to extend our moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris. We will never budge from our principle stand on Kashmir issue, which must be resolved through dialogue in accordance with the wishes of the people of Pakistan and in accordance with the UN resolutions.”
January 13: Iftikhar Gilani, prominent Kashmiri journalist and son-in-law of senior Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani, is released in New Delhi from seven months of unlawful confinement. The release follows withdrawal of fabricated case against him by the Indian government.
All Parties Hurriyet Conference welcomes the stand taken by Pakistan President Perverz Musharraf on Kashmir in his televised address and urges India to respond positively to resolve the issue. “We welcome the stand taken by President Musharraf on Kashmir issue and urge India to respond positively to find a solution to the issue,” sys the APHC Chairman Abdul Gani Butt. Butt also calls for comprehensive efforts to resume dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir issue peacefully.
January 19: US Secretary of State Collin Powell welcomes the improving relations between Pakistan and India and says the standoff between India and Pakistan has eased since SAARC summit, as both sides are committed to a diplomatic solution of all the problems. “Based on my conversations in both Islamabad and New Delhi, I think things are improving,' Powell tells Fox News in a pre-recorded interview from Tokyo, where he is attending a conference on aid to Afghanistan. “I am encouraged that both President (Pervez) Musharraf and Prime Minister (Atal Behari) Vajpayee are committed to finding a political and diplomatic solution. “
February 11: Senior Hurriyet leaders, camping in New Delhi, meet the diplomats from UK, France, Germany, Iran and Pakistan and are scheduled to interact with the senior US diplomats, a spokesman of APHC tell media. The Hurriyet leaders apprise the diplomats about the latest situation in occupied Kashmir and urge the world community to come forward for the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue.
March 8: Islamabad invites Indian Home Minister L K Advani to visit Pakistan and discuss all contentious issues. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider extends the invitation during his meeting with Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj at the SAARC Information Ministers conference.
March 9: The puppet regime in occupied Kashmir acknowledges that DNA samples taken from five men, blamed for the massacre of 35 Sikhs two years ago, have been tampered with. The Kashmiris say that the people whose samples have been sent for identification are among the innocent victims of this gory incident. The puppet Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah also says that it appears that fake samples have been sent suggesting, ' those responsible are hiding something.”
March 26: Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, while speaking at a function in Himachal Pradesh says any talks with Pakistan would have to be held within the purview of the Shimla and the Lahore agreements. Washington says it accords top priority to India-Pak relations and the situation in Kashmir. White House Press Secretary Arie Fleischer says, because of tension between India and Pakistan, the peaceful resolution of any of the differences involving Kashmir, is important. He says, ”So it (Kashmir) is a top priority, it is something that the president has focused on, as well as the state department too, of course”.
March 31: Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, renews a call for the resumption of dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue and says his government is ready for talks. Musharraf says that Kashmir issue should be resolved according to the wishes of Kashmiris and his government was ready for talks with India to work out a durable solution to it. He says this during his conversation with Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Sikandar Hayat Khan in Islamabad.
April 02: White House Press Secretary Arie Fleischer says that US President George W Bush is working hard with India and Pakistan to settle disputes that could worsen a volatile situation.
April 05: The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Donald Camp says in Washington that United States believes that there is a real danger of military conflict in South Asia, but hopes that Pakistan and India would soon resume bilateral dialogue to discuss all issues, including Kashmir.
April 09: Members of the lawyers delegation from Indian held Kashmir demand “freedom of movement across the Line of Control (LoC)” that divides Kashmir, and invite India and Pakistan to hold talks on Kashmir in Srinagar. They make this demand while addressing a gathering at Islamabad. Four valley-based lawyers are on tour of Pakistan to attend a lawyers' conference in Islamabad.
April 11: The OIC Kashmir Contact Group in a meeting in Geneva affirms that a plebiscite under UN auspices to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people could be the only viable basis for peaceful settlement of this dispute.
April 16: “United States is ready to offer any help to India and Pakistan in resolving the Kashmir dispute provided both the countries want it”, American Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill says in Chandigarh. 'Any solution on Kashmir has to be reached between India and Pakistan. We are not going to mediate on the issue until both countries ask us to do so. We are waiting for our phone to ring from both sides,' Blackwill adds.
April 17: Kashmiri leaders from both sides of the line of control meet in Sharjah for the first time in several years and express optimism that the Kashmir issue can be solved through dialogue.
April 24: The United States continues to work for peace in Kashmir and resolution of Indo-Pakistan differences despite the media focus on the West Asia, and the Bush administration achieves 'a nice bit of success' there, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer tells media. -'We are busily engaged in ... continuing to work towards peace involving Kashmir, and issues involving India and Pakistan, it has been a nice bit of success, it continues to be an important part of the world,' Fleischer says at a press briefing in Washington.
April 27: APHC leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq terms the recent Dubai meeting a success where Kashmiri leaders discussed matters pertaining to resolution of Kashmir issue through comprehensive and peaceful negotiations.
April 23: The World Bank in its latest report warns, Kashmir crisis can end in a nuclear exchange that will wreak enormous physical and economic devastation in both India and Pakistan.
May 10: Reiterating the Hurriyet stand on so-called elections, Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Ghani Butt makes it clear the APHC will not participate in the coming so-called assembly elections. Butt says elections are no solution to the Kashmir problem, which only purposeful tripartite talks can solve.
May 15: Addressing a press conference in Islamabad US Assistant Secretary of the State Christina Rocca says Pakistan and India's military standoff is a major area of focus for the US administration. We would continue to work for the reduction of tension between India and Pakistan.
May 16: American diplomat Christina Rocca ends a two-day visit to India for reducing the military standoff between the nuclear-armed rivals but reports little sign of progress. 'This is not the work of one trip. We're very worried about the continued mobilisation of two major armies facing each other at close proximity and the possibility of a spark that could lead to an unintended conflict,' Ms. Rocca says before leaving for Islamabad.
May 18: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reiterates in a function in Islamabad that Pakistan will continue diplomatic, political and moral support to the ongoing Kashmir freedom struggle in occupied Kashmir and would never abandon its principled stand on the matter.
Initiating major diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, India gives a week time to Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jahangir Qazi to leave the country.
May 21: APHC leader Abdul Ghani Lone along with his bodyguard is shot dead while attending a ceremony commemorating the assassination of prominent Kashmiri leader, Mir Waiz Maulvi Farooq.
Pakistan issues an angry condemnation of the cold-blooded murder of APHC leader Abdul Ghani Lone.
May 24: The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in a statement calls Kashmir 'unfinished business' and stresses the question as to 'who should run Kashmir is never fully resolved'.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hints at opening a door when he says that the government has always been ready to talk to the Hurriyet. ''I am inviting them for talks,'' he says.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell twice speaks to President Pervez Musharraf on telephone, expresses the dire urgency to de-escalate the extremely high tension between Pakistan and India.
India resolves to order military strikes against what was described as militants based in Azad Kashmir unless Pakistan moves aggressively to dismantle “extremist organisations”. The decision is taken at a meeting of top Indian military and security officials in IHK attended by the Indian prime minister, defence minister and other cabinet members.