New Delhi, October 26
A number of expatriate Kashmiri organisations have welcomed the Centre’s move to further normalise relations with Pakistan and also offer to hold talks with the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC).
Terming India’s proposals for normalisation of relations with Pakistan and offer of talks with the Hurriyat Conference as a “milestone” in ending bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir the organisations have asked the conglomerate to grab the opportunity failing which the future generations would not forgive them.
The organisations include the newly formed amalgam of influential Kashmiri expatriate leaders, International Kashmir Alliance (IKA), Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir-based Jammu and Kashmir All Parties National Alliance and JKLF leader Shabir Chaudhury. They have also urged Pakistan to respond to this offer in a positive manner so that there was peace in the region.
In separate statements the leaders hoped that the APHC would understand the need of the hour and take up the offer made by the Centre.
IKA Chairman Syed Nazir Gilani said the Hurriyat should “understand the jurisprudence of the Kashmir specific benefits in the package and take advantage of the jurisprudence of recognition created by the Centre by announcing that Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani would hold talks with the Hurriyat.”
In his letter to the Hurriyat Chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari, he said “in the past the Hurriyat has failed to administer its constitutional discipline... if it fails again then the future generation will never forgive you.”
He also extended support to
the
12-point proposals made by India to Pakistan and said: “ The IKA sincerely hopes that the Hurriyat would not repeat its past mistake and that it would position in the best interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”He welcomed India’s proposal to start a bus service between Srinagar and Muzzafarabad. “We have over 2.5 million refugees settled in Pakistan and the PoK. They have remained separated for the past 56 years and the start of the bus service would be in the interest of commonmen.”
He claimed that several Pakistani leaders like Air Marshal Asghar Khan and Gen Faiz Ali Chitsi had supported soft entry and exit points along the border.
Chaudhury termed the measures as “positive development” and said “we hope that other parties to the Kashmir issue like Pakistan and people of Jammu and Kashmir will respond to it in spirit of cooperation.”
In a letter to the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan, the All Parties National Alliance thanked the Indian Government for taking steps in reducing tension in the sub-continent.
“Peace is something required by all concerned in the entire sub-continent which is affected by poverty,” Secretary-General of the organisation Sardar Arif Shahid said in his letter.
