Top separatist leaders from Kashmir arrived in Pakistan on Monday to visit Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir for the first time since it was battered by an earthquake that left 3.5 million people homeless.
The leaders also expected to meet with Pakistan's president and prime minister to discuss helping quake victims and the continuing peace process between India and Pakistan.
Umar Farooq, the head of the three-member delegation and the leading Muslim cleric in Kashmir, told reporters after arriving in the eastern city of Lahore that the dispute over Kashmir has become a human issue following the October 8 quake.
"This is no longer a political dispute," Farooq said.
He demanded that Pakistan and India ease travel restrictions across the Line of Control, the heavily militarised cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between the two countries.