Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 31: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq today said that as people of India overwhelmingly voted for Narendra Modi and his party back into power, this mandate gives him the opportunity and the power to play a decisive role in the resolution of the long pending Kashmir issue.
Addressing Friday prayer gathering, Mirwaiz said that Kashmir has consumed generations and prevents durable peace and development in the entire region.
Mirwaiz said that he believes that this issue cannot be resolved militarily or through confrontation but by dialogue and deliberations and Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s oft repeated offer of dialogue on all issues between India and Pakistan including on the Kashmir issue should be seriously considered by the new dispensation in New Delhi as the way forward.
The Hurriyat Conference chairman said all Kashmiris irrespective of their organisational affiliations are speaking in one voice about the urgent need for resolution of the conflict. “So it is an opportune time to initiate political processes which enables and facilitates conflict resolution”, he said.
Mirwaiz said as in the past Hurriyat is willing to support every such initiative which aims at peaceful resolution of Kashmir keeping in view the sentiments and aspirations of the people of the State who are the main stakeholders and which puts an end to decades of loss and suffering inflicted on them due to the lingering conflict.
The Hurriyat Conference chairman said during our engagement with PM Vajpayee and later with PM Manmohan Singh and after visiting Pakistan Hurriyat had put forward certain substantial measures to both India and Pakistan as a precursor to serious negotiations. “Both at that time had agreed to implement these steps to prepare ground for serious negotiations,- it included revocation of the AFSPA and other black laws, gradual demilitarization, prisoner release and initiation of a process to narrow differences between the parties to the dispute”, he said.
Mirwaiz said these measures hold true even today when the situation has only further deteriorated. He said if these steps are initiated by both sides it will bring relief to people of Kashmir and an atmosphere for sincere engagement among all stakeholders will be created for a permanent resolution.
Mirwaiz said a resolution to the Kashmir can transform both India and Pakistan and usher in a new era of stability and progress in South Asia, free from punishing military budgets and fear of conflict, bringing the much needed relief to the hapless people of Kashmir striving for a resolution.
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