SRINAGAR : Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Thursday urged New Delhi to take a cue from Afghanistan talks and start a dialogue with Kashmiri leadership and Pakistan to resolve long pending Kashmir dispute.
Taking to Twitter, Mirwaiz said after decades of bloodshed, good news for the region is coming from Afghanistan where many factions of Afghan parties and Taliban are currently having a dialogue to end 17-year old war in their country.
Mirwaiz hoped that India would pay heed and agrees to talk to Kashmiris and Pakistan to resolve Kashmir issue.
“Looks like after decades of bloodshed good news for the region from #Afghanistan, all factions hopeful to reach an agreement through dialogue and give peace a chance. Hope India pays heed and agrees to talk to Kashmiri’s and Pakistan to resolve the festering #Kashmir dispute!” Mirwaiz tweeted.
Taliban, which is having talks with Afghan politicians in Russian capital Moscow, has claimed that the talks were “very successful”.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that his country is ready for talks with India.
However he added, “Are they (India).” “The prime minister is saying ‘wake up’. The situation in Indian-occupied Kashmir is deteriorating by the day. And it isn’t just the prime minister ─ the United Nations and the All-Parties Parliamentary Group constituted by the House of Commons are all saying that; voices in India are talking about how they’re losing, how they’re alienating Kashmiris and that it’s a lost cause. So this voice is growing all over,” the foreign minister responded.
Responding to a question that, “there are many in Kashmir who don’t want freedom on Pakistani terms”, to which Qureshi said: “Fine, let’s have a plebiscite. Let the people decide. That’s a commitment, that’s a commitment by India as part of the UN agenda. Give the people the right to self-determination, and whatever they decide, Pakistan will accept.”
Recently, after observing ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’, Qureshi had said that adoption of a joint statement on the Kashmir dispute by members of the British parliament is a ‘big breakthrough for Pakistan’.
Qureshi also said that ‘India tried its best to stop’ the holding of Kashmir solidarity conference in the British parliament, but did not succeed.
He announced that a similar conference would also be held at the European Parliament in Brussels to highlight the plight of Kashmiri people.
Addressing the media after the international conference on Kashmir in London, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi thanked members of the British Parliament for tabling a joint resolution on the Kashmir issue — a development he termed as “massive”.
Meanwhile, India had raised objections with the United Kingdom for allowing Pakistan to use their Parliament as a ‘stage’ for a Kashmir Conference.
Earlier, President of Pakistan Arif Alvi had said that instead of ‘justifying terrorism against innocent citizens by pushing a ‘false narrative of killings militants’, Indian Government should uphold the rights of the Kashmiri people. (PTK)
