November 1, 2001	Thursday	Shaba’an 14, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Oct 31: Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday welcomed the assessment by the UNMOGIP chief about the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, saying it showed that a grim reality was dawning among international players that the Himalayan region had become too volatile a place to be ignored by them any further.

APHC Chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhatt told Dawn from Srinagar that the world was also beginning to realise that the global war against terrorism could not be won completely without addressing the root cause of violence, for example in Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya.

“The UNMOGIP comments mirror the true reality of the situation in Kashmir,” Prof Bhatt said.

The head of United Military Observers’ Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), Maj-Gen Hermann Loidlt said in a statement in Srinagar on Monday that it was his assessment that “the situation will become more tense in the coming days, not only along the LoC but also in the entire Jammu and Kashmir state.”

“There is a growing realisation at the global level that to end the orgy of violence, we have to address the root cause of the strife in Palestine, Kashmir or in Chechnya,” Prof Bhatt said. “The world leaders also think the situation in the South Asian region was assuming dangerous proportions, and it had become a threat to the interest of people at large.”

The issue was not an ordinary matter bedevilling relations between two major powers,” he said. “An accident or a miscalculation could lead to a nuclear confrontation.”

Commenting on Gen Loidlt’s view that India and Pakistan were playing political games in Kashmir, other Kashmiri groups also welcomed the blunt if controversial words.

“It is a realistic statement,” said senior Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Bashir Bhat. “The United Nations should play its role in resolving the Kashmir issue,” he said.