ISLAMABAD, April 4: All Parties Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Tuesday he felt winds of change blowing across Kashmir and the APHC was seeking to build a consensus (among Kashmiris) for a settlement of the issue. He told journalists at the end of his third visit to Pakistan in a little over a year that the APHC envisioned Jammu and Kashmir as one entity in any solution even if the former princely state were divided into several regions for self-governance.

He said ‘Kashmir be addressed as one unit as it existed at the time of the partition of British India.’

He described the present stage of Kashmir struggle as crucial and decisive and said: “For the first time since 1947, Kashmiri people’s voice is being recognised to some extent and... (their) centrality has come to the fore.”

Stressing the need for Kashmiris to develop a consensus, he said the APHC had begun interaction with not only the predominantly Muslim population of Kashmir valley but also the Hindus of Jammu and Buddhists of Ladakh ‘who feel being far away from what they see as a Muslim movement.’

“But they can live in harmony with Muslims with safeguards assured in a new settlement,” the Mirwaiz said.

He also referred to the APHC’s contacts with activists from Gilgit and Baltistan in the Northern Areas, the latest being during the World Social Forum in Karachi, and said ‘all regions and communities should be involved in the process to forge a consensus about the future shape of things in Kashmir.’

“A solution of the Kashmir problem cannot be found on regional or cultural basis,” he said. “The Kashmir movement needs to be presented in a new background. Instead of past, we have to look to the future,” he added.

“A time has come when we have to take all regions along. We want to project (the Kashmir issue) in a new background. Pakistan and India also should negotiate with a new perspective.”

Answering questions, he said the APHC’s search for a consensus would include the militant groups fighting India’s rule in Kashmir, and supported their inclusion in the dialogue that India has begun with the moderate Kashmiri parties.

Mr Farooq sounded hopeful about the possibility of the hardline APHC faction, led by Syed Ali Gillani, coming round to the position taken by his moderate faction.

He commended ‘readiness of both sides to look beyond their previously stated positions,’ but said: “A solution has to be outside the constitutions of both the countries.”

“If we move forward on the basis of five regions (of Kashmir), India’s concerns can also be addressed,” he said, apparently referring to President Pervez Musharraf’s proposals about demilitarisation of different regions and establishment of self-governance there. He spoke approvingly about the idea of India and Pakistan being jointly responsible for the defence of Kashmir.