Hurriyat ready to support India-Pakistan dialogue

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 19

Urging India and Pakistan to take confidence building measures (CBMs) or adopt a “step-by-step approach” over Kashmir, moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Sunday said the Hurriyat was ready to support the dialogue if India and Pakistan initiated a fresh process over the issue.

Mirwaiz said this while addressing a seminar. “The importance of dialogue in the backdrop of strained Indo-Pak relations” at the Rajbagh Hurriyat headquarters, organised by the amalgam to commemorate the anniversaries of Moulvi Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone.

“We ask the BJP leadership to change their thinking over Kashmir. The Kashmir issue is a reality. Peace and development cannot be established in the regions without the resolution of the Kashmir issue,” Mirwaiz said.

Mirwaiz said the CBMs should be taken which would encourage people in Kashmir.

“These CBMs would also suggest to the youth and the leadership in Kashmir that some movement is there. Otherwise, you can see there is lot of anger and alienation among the youth,” the Hurriyat leader said, adding that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had already shown his intent for dialogue with India to resolve issues, including Kashmir.

He said it was incumbent upon the leadership of both India and Pakistan to start an initiative over Kashmir.

“We (the Hurriyat leadership) are ready to support such process at any level. But let the two nations first make a beginning or adopt a step by step approach. We are not against that either,” Mirwaiz said, adding that in the past too the Hurriyat leadership had made it clear to leaders on both sides to take the CBMs on Kashmir as these “would create a conducive atmosphere in the region”.

Mirwaiz also urged the GoI to revoke the ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami & JKLF and also release the political leaders without any pre-conditions.