ISLAMABAD, Feb 4: President General Pervez Musharraf has said that Kashmir has become a flashpoint threatening regional stability and global peace.

In his message on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day the president said Pakistan was doing what it could to persuade India to enter into meaningful negotiations with Pakistan to resolve this dispute.

“We have repeatedly said that Pakistan wants tension-free relations with India and for that purpose desires to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and all other outstanding issues through peaceful means,” he said.

“I take this opportunity to once again urge the Indian leadership to sit with us at the negotiating table. Let there be no doubt that Pakistan will continue to extend full diplomatic, political and moral support to the Kashmiri people in their just struggle for their right to determine their own future,” the president said.

“It is unfortunate that India has reneged on its promises and is trying to mislead the world community by projecting the indigenous struggle of the Kashmiri people, as terrorism.

“If the people of Kashmir have been forced to take up arms against Indian occupation forces during the past decade or so, it is India which is to be blamed for this.

“No self-respecting people can be expected to remain unmoved while their families and friends are being killed, tortured and gang raped, their houses burnt down, their business destroyed and humiliation of the worst kind heaped upon them through the instrument of state terrorism.”