LAHORE, July 3: The only solution of the Kashmir issue is holding of a plebiscite according to the UN Security Council resolutions.

This was the consensus of the speakers who participated in a discussion organized by the Hamdard Thinkers Forum at the Hamdard Centre here on Wednesday.

Former chief justice of Pakistan Dr Nasim Hasan Shah said Indian attitude was the biggest hurdle in the solution of the issue as it had created an awkward situation by refusing to hold the plebiscite.

Neither it was prepared to accept mediation of a third party nor agreed to hold bilateral talks with Pakistan on one pretext or another.

Kashmir Action Committee Pakistan (KACP) president Dr Muzaffar Shah seconded Dr Shah’s views. He said the issue could not be resolved through war as there had been three wars between Pakistan and India. Even the Indian army chiefs have been urging their governments that the issue could not be solved through the use of military force.

Punjab University former vice-chancellor Dr Muniruddin Chughtai feared that a nuclear war between Pakistan and India could start over the issue. A war had been temporarily averted with the intervention of the international community, he added.

He said war threat continued to exist as India had not withdrawn its army from Pakistan’s borders.

Dr Chughtai said India had succeeded through its diplomacy to convince the global community that Pakistan was responsible for infiltration into occupied Kashmir and that the freedom struggle of the Kashmiris was terrorism. Unity of all Muslim countries was necessary to support Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir, he added.

Brig Zafar Iqbal (retired) said it was unfortunate that under the US pressure and success of Indian diplomacy Pakistan had been forced to believe that the Mujahideen’s struggle was an act of terrorism whereas the fact was that India was perpetrating atrocities on Kashmiris. It has been killing 300 to 400 people every month. Most of the APHC leaders have been jailed. India was trying to get a state assembly elected which could resolve the Kashmir issue. America and other Western nations were supporting India in its design.

The meeting was addressed by Advocate Ismael Qureshi, Prof Abdul Jabbar Shakir and Dr M. A. Soofi.