New Delhi, Nov. 23 -- A Turkish parliamentary committee set up to oversee a new peace initiative with Kurdish militants on Friday voted in favor of a controversial step to meet with the militant group's leader,

Abdullah Ocalan

, in prison, state media reported.

Ocalan, who has been imprisoned at Imrali Island near Istanbul since 1999, remains an influential figure among Kurds and is seen as key in advancing the peace process aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency. However, as the founder of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party

, or PKK, he is also reviled by much of the Turkish public as a "baby killer" and is held responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people since the 1980s.

In an unprecedented decision, a cross-party commi...