WASHINGTON, Sept 27: All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Tuesday sought ‘comprehensive membership’ of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) for Kashmir.
The APHC chairman, who was addressing a news briefing in Washington, had also raised this issue at the meeting of the OIC foreign ministers in New York on Saturday.
“The OIC membership would be a step towards greater involvement of the Kashmiri people in the international community,” he said in a news briefing at the Washington’s National Press Club.
Mirwaiz also urged India and Pakistan to include Kashmiris in the peace process initiated to resolve disputes between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed states.
The APHC chairman had had an hour-long meeting with President Pervez Musharraf in New York on Sept 17 and briefed him on the first-ever talks the Hurriyat leaders had with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Sept 5. This was the APHC’s third interaction with the Pakistani leader in five months.
Talking about his contacts with Indian and Pakistani leaders, Mirwaiz said this was still “a triangular process” because India was unwilling to involve Kashmiris in the dialogue.
“For this dialogue to succeed, it is important that the Kashmiris are also involved in it. That’s why we want it to be a tripartite process, with direct participation of Kashmiri leaders,” he said.
The APHC chairman said that India had acknowledged the importance of Kashmiris in the dialogue process and that the APHC’s meeting with the Indian prime minister was an indirect acknowledgement of the fact that the Kashmiris were a significant party to the issue.
Mirwaiz appreciated confidence building measures taken by Pakistan and said that he expected the same positive response from India. He urged both the countries to make these measures more Kashmir-centric.
Mirwaiz demanded release of political prisoners, amnesty for all Kashmiris, accountability for human rights violations by Indian paramilitary forces and dismantling of military bunkers in Indian-held Kashmir as some of the steps needed to be taken immediately.
He also sought an assurance from India and Pakistan that the Line of Control would not be converted into a permanent border. “Things need to move at a more brisk pace,” he said while urging the Indian government to be more sincere and serious about the peace process.
“Unless there is recognition on the ground that the peace process is working, this process will go nowhere. It will remain a mere political dialogue and will not resolve anything,” said the APHC chairman.
He said the APHC hoped to have more meetings with both President Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh but no dates had been finalized yet.
