Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday said overwhelming mandate gives Prime Minister Narendra Modi an opportunity and the power to play a decisive role in the resolution of the long-pending Kashmir conflict.
Addressing a huge gathering of people on Jumat-ul-Vida which was observed with religious fervor across Kashmir, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said Kashmir conflict has consumed generations of Kashmiris and is preventing durable peace and development in the entire region.
“I believe that this issue cannot be resolved militarily or through confrontation but by dialogue and deliberations,” he said.
Mirwaiz said that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s oft-repeated offer of dialogue on all issues between India and Pakistan including on the Kashmir issue should be seriously considered by the new dispensation in New Delhi as the way forward.
He said today all Kashmiris irrespective of their organizational affiliations are speaking in one voice about the urgent need for resolution of the conflict. “So it is an opportune time to initiate political processes which enable and facilitates conflict resolution.”
Mirwaiz said as in the past Hurriyat was willing to support every such initiative which aims at a peaceful resolution of the dispute keeping in view the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Kashmir who are the main stakeholders and which puts an end to decades of loss and suffering inflicted on them due to the lingering conflict.
Mirwaiz said during his engagement with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later with Manmohan Singh and after visiting Pakistan, Hurriyat Conference had put forward certain substantial measures to both India and Pakistan as a precursor to serious negotiations. “Both at that time had agreed to implement these steps to prepare ground for serious negotiations and it included revocation of the AFSPA and other black laws, gradual demilitarization, prisoner release and initiation of a process to narrow differences between the parties to the dispute.”
Mirwaiz said these measures hold true even today when the situation has only further deteriorated. He said if these steps are initiated by both sides it will bring relief to people of Kashmir and an atmosphere for sincere engagement among all stakeholders will be created for a permanent resolution.
“Each day our youngsters are killed and this unresolved conflict has consumed lakhs of lives. South Kashmir has been turned into a permanent battleground, an expanding graveyard of our young, as we continue to shoulder the dead daily,” he said, adding, “We want this long cycle of killings and violence to end. We don’t want to see our youngster, or an Indian or Pakistani soldier dies in this ‘forever’ conflict.” India and Pakistan have to acknowledge and address the unresolved political problem in Kashmir, he said.
Without addressing the question of Kashmir, he said, there will be repeated returns to perilous states of war as was recently witnessed.
Mirwaiz said a resolution to the Kashmir issue can transform both India and Pakistan and usher in a new era of stability and progress in South Asia, free from punishing military budgets and fear of conflict, bringing the much-needed relief to the hapless people of Kashmir striving for a resolution.
For that, it is imperative that democratic processes are invoked and restored by New Delhi and the policy of repression and military approach be done away with . One measure for doing so is the release all of all political prisoners languishing in various jails across India including Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah, Asiya Andrabi and others.
On the occasion, Mirwaiz remembered the lakhs of martyrs of Kashmir especially the youth and paid \ glowing tributes to them and their sacrifices. On the occasion, a resolution on behalf of JRL was readout and passed.
With largest gathering witnessed at Jama Masjid , the last day of Ramazan was observed as Youm-e-Qudus and Youm-e-Kashmir.
