New Delhi, September 8
The Kashmir Committee (KC) has supported All-Party Hurriyat Conference’s demand for holding talks with “Kashmiri political elements in Pakistan” and with its government for finding a durable solution to the Kashmir imbroglio.
“The committee supports APHC’s wish to pursue a dialogue for peace and a durable solution with the Pakistan Government and Kashmiri political elements there,’’ said a joint statement issued at the end of talks between the Hurriyat Conference and the Kashmir Committee.
The talks resumed today morning after yesterday’s first round meeting. A four-member Hurriyat Conference delegation led by its chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat arrived in the capital yesterday for talks with the seven-member Kashmir Committee.
The joint statement, read by Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq in presence of Kashmir Committee member M J Akbar, asked all concerned parties to rise above their traditional positions, abandon extreme stands and show the necessary flexibility and realism to reach an acceptable, honourable and durable solution.
The two sides agreed that “the process of dialogue could be best nurtured through a structured dialogue between all concerned parties. This includes a dialogue between people across the borders to create conditions conducive to a solution. It was agreed that the strength of the solution lay in its acceptance by all parties.”
The APHC and KC condemned all forms of violence and it was reiterated that a settlement of the Kashmir issue had to take into account the wishes of all regions of the state.
The APHC and KC emphasised that all those who had been forced to migrate from the state should return and be fully rehabilitated with full protection of their rights.
They called on the governments of India and Pakistan to make all efforts at the earliest to create conditions for reducing tensions on the Indo-Pak border.
The Kashmir Committee indicated its readiness to meet the Kashmir Committee of Pakistan at a mutually convenient time and place.
Besides Mr Mirwaiz and Mr Bhat, the APHC team at the meeting comprised Shiekh Mohammed Ali and Javed Mir.
Meanwhile, the APHC
has
opposed any move to convert the LoC into international border between India and Pakistan. APHC chief Abdul Ghani Bhat ruled out the possibility of the Hurriyat accepting any such solution. “The line drawn across our hearts cannot be acceptable, honourable or durable,” Mr Bhat told TNS here.Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is among the leaders who have advocated converting LoC into border as a realistic solution to the Kashmir imbroglio.
But the Hurriyat is in no mood to even accept it as an one of options for the solution. “How can be the problem be a solution,” the APHC chief said. Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, another leader of the APHC said LoC cannot be accepted as border between India and Pakistan. “We don’t want a further division of Kashmir... we want its reunification,” he said.
The Hurriyat leaders will meet officials of the Pakistan High Commission tomorrow.
