SRINAGAR, Sept 6:
Welcoming the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York, moderate Hurriyat Conference today asked the two leaders to seek a peaceful solution to Kashmir issue through dialogue rather than confrontation.
“We welcome the proposed meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan on the margins of the UN General Assembly later this month and impress upon the leadership of the two countries to start a positive and serious dialogue to address their outstanding issues including Kashmir instead of confrontation,” Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said.
Addressing a Friday congregation at Jamia Masjid here, the separatist leader said the New York meeting provides an opportunity to both the countries to resume dialogue at a time when their armies are in a state of war at the borders.
“War is no solution to issues and the people of the sub-continent had gone through the worst consequences of the confrontation in the past,” he said and advocated for taking along the leadership of Kashmiris in the dialogue process.
“The resistance leadership of Kashmiris from both sides should be taken on board in the dialogue process to end confrontation in the region,” he said.
Accusing the Centre of following a conspiracy to make Kashmiris economically dependent, the Hurriyat chairman said it is unfortunate that new residential structures are coming up on agricultural and horticultural lands.
“Instead of utilising the natural resources for enhancing our economy, the thrust is being given to set up residential structures which can prove disastrous,” Mirwaiz said.
He claimed that the land mafia has joined hands with the government in taking the market value of land to alarming levels as a result the land owners are selling their properties to fulfill their residential needs.
“There is no meaning to political independence without economic independence,” Mirwaiz said and appealed to the civil society, economists and leading trade institutions to come forward and fulfill their responsibility with regard to this important “national issue”. (PTI)
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