Buoyed up over the resumption of dialogue process between India and Pakistan, a senior secessionist leader in Kashmir said the two countries must devise a mechanism to involve the people of Jammu & Kashmir in the process for arriving at “just and agreeable solution to issue of Kashmir”.
“Kashmir is basically a political and human issue and needs a political solution”, Chairman of a faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told a gathering of devotees at a revered shrine in old Srinagar where traditional congregational afternoon prayers were held.
“India and Pakistan shall have to devise a mechanism in order to include the people of Kashmir in the dialogue because without their participation and without taking their aspirations into account there cannot be a just and agreeable solution to this issue (of Kashmir)”, he said.
Mirwaiz was speaking in the backdrop of recent breakthrough in the Indo-Pak dialogue process, which turned a new leaf following Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Islamabad.
leaders across the political spectrum including former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti have welcomed the resumption of dialogue process.
Mirwaiz while welcoming the resumption of dialogue said Hurriyat always favoured cordial relationship between India and Pakistan and dialogue was the most effective way to resolve the contentious issues.
He said that unlike the past when dialogue would be stalled on one or the other pretext, this time the dialogue would be carried forward with all seriousness and in a meaningful way.
Mirwaiz expressed hope that the dialogue will lead to fresh confidence building measures over Kashmir, be it within the Kashmir or across the line of control so as to help develop a cordial atmosphere for the smooth progress of the dialogue.