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Thursday March 28, 2024

India refuses to hold talks on Kashmir

By Mariana Baabar
August 26, 2016

ISLAMABAD: As expected India has formally rejected Pakistan’s proposal made earlier this month to hold talks on Kashmir, to find a way out of the continuing brutalities being inflicted on the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), while Pakistan says that it is studying the Indian letter and would respond soon.

Pakistan had earlier invited the Indian foreign secretary to Islamabad to hold bilateral talks on the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

The death toll of Kashmiris has crossed 80 and over 7,000 are injured with 500 suffering from eye injuries due to pellet guns firing by the Indian forces.

“There are gruesome details and heart rending stories of helpless Kashmiris emanating from the IOK. We pray for Allah’s protection for Kashmiris and undertake to continue with our efforts with moral, diplomatic and political support to their peaceful struggle for self-determination,” the Spokesman at the Foreign Office remarked on Thursday.

Reports from the Valley say that curfew was today extended to the Pulwama district while it remained in force some areas of Srinagar and Anantnag town, while restrictions on the assembly of people in the rest of the Valley continued for the 48th consecutive day.

Officially neither is New Delhi nor is Islamabad commenting on the contents of the latest Indian letter, but sources in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs are being quoted by the Indian media, saying that talks appeared “very unlikely” at present.

India realises that scenes from IOK are making it to front pages in the international media so is stressing that Pakistan is exporting terrorism to “other countries of the region” without naming Afghanistan and Bangla Desh.

Specially bothersome for New Delhi is that Kashmiri opposition parties with strong ties to India are now saying that Pakistan has nothing to do with the murder of Burhan Muzaffar Wani and the situation as it unfolded and continues till date.

“India has informed Pakistan that priority is outlining the need for talks on battling terror emanating from Pakistan that targets “not just India, but other countries in the region, and not Kashmir.”India would not hold dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir issue,” Indian media reports indicated.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office’s position has been that unless Indian officially comments on their communication, it will not respond to media reports.

It is indeed a pity that bilateral relations between the two neighbours has now been reduced to merely letter writing while IOK burns with no signs that there will be stepping back by the security forces.

The fact that after a month of killing, maiming and blinding unarmed Kashmiris, the Indian Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday promised to look into ‘alternatives’ to pellet guns and to keep the doors open to freedom fighters for talks.

He spoke as western world capitals also appeared to be blinded to these atrocities but their blindness was the benefits of economic and trade ties with India.

It was the Indian High Commissioner Gautan Bambawala who handed over his bosses letter to Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, on August 23 and when New Delhi saw that Pakistan was not making it public, leaked the news to its media.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs sources told the Indian media that S Jaishankar is understood to have repeated that India is prepared to speak to Pakistan only about terrorism issues including the investigations into the Pathankot airbase attack in January 2016 and Mumbai 26/11 attacks in 2008, with the addition of a new demand that Pakistan vacate Pakistan-occupied Kashmir immediately.

“Ignoring the contents of Aizaz Chaudhry's letter, that also called for permission for UN representatives, and international doctors and paramedics to be allowed to travel to Jammu and Kashmir to treat those injured in the past month, Jaishankar reportedly indicated that the only part of Jammu and Kashmir India wishes to discuss is the part occupied by Pakistan”, The Hindu reported.

As Pakistan prepares to excel in the art of diplomatic letter writing, it has also pointed out that India’s attempts to drag in Balochistan and internal part of Pakistan has also backfired.

“Indian journalists had raised queries on Balochistan and these were clumsy attempts by India to divert the world’s attention to the atrocities being committed by the Indian security forces against unarmed innocent civilian Kashmiri population in IOK. The international community must see through these desperate attempts by India to externalise a genuine, home grown, indigenous uprising against the repression unleashed by Indian occupation forces in IOK. The massive public reaction across Pakistan including in Balochistan on these recent statements are sufficient to prove that all such comparisons are frivolous, unfounded and malicious”, the spokesman told the weekly media briefing.

Meanwhile, keeping a stiff upper lip as New Delhi intentionally looks away from giving humanity a chance in IOK, Pakistan admits that its efforts in the last four decades have not met with success due to the Indian intransigence.

“We believe that dialogue is the best way forward and we, as a responsible country, want to resolve all issues peacefully through a meaningful, sustainable and result oriented dialogue. We firmly believe that the recent grave situation in IOK calls for an immediate dialogue for which we have already written to the Indian side,” added the spokesman.