Mirwaiz urges India, Pakistan to resume J&K dialogue soon

SRINAGAR: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference called for a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue and said that further delay may aggravate the security and political situations in the South Asian region, foreign media reported.

“We at the APHC have always wanted a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the will and aspirations of all the people of J&K. We stand firm and committed on this demand,” it said in a statement here. He urged both India and Pakistan to resume dialogue at the earliest and seek a permanent and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue “as per the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, by including them as the main stakeholders". It asserted that the people of the erstwhile state “are bearing the brunt of the conflict for the past 73 years and living in hellish conditions.”

Earlier, former Indian government interlocutor Mohammad Mukhtar Ansari (MM Ansari) has said that India’s last year's decision to annex Jammu and Kashmir was tantamount to breaching a sacred trust and understanding between the two sovereign states.

In an exclusive conversation with Anadolu Agency a year after Indian government’s last year August 5 decisions, he said while the constitutional provision was rescinded to ensure faster development and containing militancy, the objectives have not been realised.

“The objective of restoring peace has therefore not been realized. Likewise, socioeconomic activities have also suffered due to which joblessness has increased. Heavy militarization of the region discourages all forms of public and private investments,” he said.

He also called on the urgent opening of tripartite talks between India, Pakistan, and China to resolve contentious issues and finalise their boundaries, which are critical for ensuring sustainable peace and development in the region.

“There is no reason why Prime Minister Modi government having absolute political mandate and authority should not engage the neighbors to resolve the contentious issues,” he said.

While criticising Indian government, a Srinagar based writer Safina Nabi said that India's Article 370 experiment in Kashmir has failed.

“Draconian laws such as the Public Safety Act, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and tight internet curbs have resulted in real curbs on the most basic democratic rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. According to local human rights organization, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, or JKCCS, there were 195 so-called cordon and search operations conducted in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, resulting in the deaths of 165 people,” she further said.

It's time that India recognised that the revocation of Article 370 and the splitting of the state of Jammu and Kashmir has been a failure, and immediately resume talks with all stakeholders, especially Kashmiris. India needs to draw on its political will and follow in the footsteps of the late former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and initiate a process of dialogue with Pakistan to ease the tension and hostility in the atmosphere, she added.

The international community also needs to do more to temper a situation that could so easily result in an open conflict between these two sometimes volatile nuclear powers. By engaging with India more effectively, and encouraging a quiet, backdoor effort at restarting talks with all the key stakeholders, there is a chance that India will cease from committing further violations in Jammu and Kashmir.