Kashmir separatists ready for talks: Indian govt

The leader of disputed Kashmir's largest separatist group said it was ready for talks with India's government yesterday, after the state governor said he was optimistic about dialogue. The Muslim-majority Kashmir valley is at the heart of more than seven decades of hostility between nuclear arch-rivals India and Pakistan. Both claim it in full but rule it in part. Rhetoric from both sides, as well as Kashmiri separatists, some of whom want to join Pakistan, has been highly charged since a February suicide car bomb attack by a Pakistan-based militant group killed more than 40 Indian police in the part of the region it controls.