Sharif hails Wani as ‘young leader’

TNS & Agencies

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New Delhi/United Nations, September 21

Raking up Kashmir at the UN, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today glorified slain Hizbul commander Burhan Wani as a “young leader” even as he expressed readiness for a “serious and sustained dialogue” with India for peaceful resolution of all outstanding disputes, especially Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharif devoted much of his 20-minute speech at the UN General Assembly session to Kashmir and the situation in the Valley and said Pakistan “fully supports the demand of the Kashmiri people for self-determination”.

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He demanded an “independent inquiry into the extra-judicial killings” and a UN fact-finding mission to Kashmir “so that the guiltyare punished”. Insisting that peace between Pakistan and India could not be achieved without solving the Kashmir dispute, he alleged human rights violations in the Valley. 

India blames Pakistan for engineering and fuelling the unrest in Kashmir.

Talking about Kashmir, Sharif referred to Wani, who was killed in an encounter with the security forces on July 8, as a “young leader” and said he had “emerged as a symbol of the latest Kashmiri Intifada, a popular and peaceful freedom movement.”