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Lone hints at resumption
of talks on Kashmir

Senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone Sunday indicated that talks to solve the Kashmir issue could be resumed in the near future.

Referring to scuttled talks between the Centre and Hizbul Mujahideen, he said it was not an ordinary development that Bharatiya Janata Party agreed to talk to a militant outfit.

This development proved beyond doubt that meaningful dialogue could be resumed in future to solve the Kashmir issue once for all, Lone said.

However, he did not spell out who all could participate in talks.

Addressing the first-ever political convention of his party (Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference) in more than ten years, Lone made it clear that his party's goal was a political, honourable and just solution to the Kashmir issue.

Lone said as a result of numerous sacrifices made by the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the last 53 years, each and every country in the world today was pressing India and Pakistan to give up their respective claims on Kashmir and resume talks to solve the issue.

Irrespective of their conflicting claims, historically Kashmir was neither a part of Pakistan nor India, he said.

Lone said every dispute has two claimants but in the case of Jammu and Kashmir there are three parties to the issue. There is no scope for finding a lasting solution to the issue if one party is left out.

Criticising both India and Pakistan, Lone said the two countries consider Jammu and Kashmir as a boundary dispute between them and do not care for the aspirations of the people of Kashmir who made sacrifices for Independence.

"The height of the unfortunate irony is that both the countries do not even consider Kashmiris as a party to the issue," he said.

Criticising India for not agreeing to involve Pakistan in the talks, Lone said it was India which made Pakistan a party to the issue by taking it to the United Nations.

Pakistan's involvement in the talks to resolve the Kashmir issue is all the more necessary as one third of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir is under its occupation, Lone said.

Lone clarified that Hurriyat had no role in sabotaging the talks between the Centre and Hizbul Mujahideen as claimed by New Delhi.

In fact, he said, Hurriyat had no role in the unilateral ceasefire announced by Hizbul Mujahideen either.

PTI

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