Talks with Pakistan key to lasting peace: Occupied Kashmir CM

SRINAGAR: The Muslim Chief Minister of Indian Occupied Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Sunday said that dialogue with Pakistan is essential to achieve sustainable peace in the Kashmir region.

Sayeed also said that India also needs to include Hurriyet leaders in talks with Pakistan.

Mufti Sayeed was sworn in as chief minister last week after his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) forged a coalition government with the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) following elections in IoK two months ago.

The PDP chief said that Indian PM Narendra Modi had said that a foreign secretary would be installed for dialogue with Pakistan. However, he said that merely an assurance of talks will not be sufficient.

Sayeed said that dialogue with Pakistan are essential for long-lasting peace in Kashmir, and stressed that Hurriyet and pro-independence Kashmiri leaders will also need to be taken on board for the talks.

At a press conference shortly after being sworn-in earlier this month, Sayeed said that Hurriyet leaders, militant outfits and “people from across the border” — construed as an oblique reference to Pakistan — allowed a conducive atmosphere for elections in IoK.

“I want to say on record and I have told this to the prime minister, that we must credit the Hurriyat, Pakistan and militant outfits for the conduct of assembly elections in the state,” Sayeed was quoted as saying at the media conference after the swearing-in ceremony.

Sayeed had also vowed that his government would attempt to hold talks with pro-independence Kashmiri leaders over the future of the Indian-Occupied Kashmir region.