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| 09 September 2004 | Thursday | 23 Rajab 1425 |
Talks divide Kashmiris
NEW DELHI, Sept 8: While much of the world, led by the United States, was pleased about Wednesday's decision by India and Pakistan to continue their complex dialogue, Kashmiri leaders were divided over its outcome.
"Are we worse than animals that a dialogue concerning us should not involve us?" asked Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). He was speaking in a TV discussion on Kashmir's future.
Mr Malik had pleaded with Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, when they met in New Delhi, for involving Kashmiris in the India-Pakistan dialogue. India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, initially critical of Indian Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh's approach to the talks, came round to support them.
"We welcome the talks as positive. These were held more or less along the lines we had prescribed," former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha claimed on Tuesday. Representatives of European missions in New Delhi said they were relieved and pleased that the two countries dealt with complex issues in a mature manner.
"You should not look at the details of how far they have come down the road in agreement or disagreement. You should compare this to the 2002 when our embassies were vacated because there were fears of a nuclear war," said the political counsellor of a European mission.
Mr Kasuri himself gave an inkling into the divisions among the Kashmiris about the proposed Srinagar-Muzaffarbad bus service. He told NDTV that the hardliners among the Kashmiris said the move would be disastrous, but even the moderate Kashmiri leaders did not want to travel on Indian passports.
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