23.5.11

Somewhere in Kashmir....



Moderate Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Bhat said his faction of the separatist amalgam is ready to talk to India and Pakistan to solve the Kashmir issue. “We offer talks to both India and Pakistan. We are willing to talk. What is the other option to solve the Kashmir issue? India and Pakistan are nuclear powers and can not go to war,” Bhat said while addressing a rally in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. He said the Kashmir dispute can not be settled without a dialogue process. “We intended to announce this decision on Saturday in Srinagar, but it seems the Jammu & Kashmir government is afraid of dialogue as they put us under house arrest and imposed curfew in the city.” Bhat invited the ruling National Conference and opposition Peoples Democratic Party to join hands with Hurriyat for a final settlement of the issue. “They should come forward and talk about aspirations of Kashmiris if NC and PDP say that Kashmir is a dispute and needs a solution,” Bhat said. Hurriyat constituent People’s Conference had organised the rally to commemorate its founder Abdul Ghani Lone death anniversary. Moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq earlier called for a joint India, Pakistan and Kashmiri effort to solve the Kashmir dispute, saying separatists were willing to “walk two steps if New Delhi walks one”. “There is need for a joint effort and a round table conference should be called in which leadership of India, Pakistan and Kashmiris can sit and solve the dispute,” he said. But the Mirwaiz regretted New Delhi’s insincerity in its dialogue offer. “New Delhi has not taken any concrete steps to solve the dispute. Kashmir can not be solved at the level of interlocutors, but at the leadership level of India, Pakistan and Kashmiris.”

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