No peaceful ‘solution’ without Kashmiris

Published September 26, 2003

LAHORE, Sept 25: AJK’s former prime minister Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry said on Thursday that Pakistan and India could not reach a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue while ignoring the sentiments of Kashmiris.

He was speaking at a gathering arranged by the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA).

Barrister Chaudhry feared that India might take an undue advantage of the current peace overtures initiated between the two countries by changing the perception of the international community on Kashmir as it had done in the past by tarnishing the image of Pakistan in the name of cross-border terrorism.

“Had Pakistan not been a nuclear power, India would have launched an attack much earlier. Islamabad has quite successfully sustained Washington’s pressure to roll back its nuclear programme”.

He alleged that the US was on a witch-hunt against the Jihadi factions currently active in the occupied Kashmir. The US wanted to resolve the Kashmir issue according to its own will. But the Kashmiris would not show any flexibility in this regard and would get the issue resolved through the UN resolutions.

He demanded that the Kashmir issue should be atop the agenda of the OIC.

The former prime minister of AJK paid tribute to the freedom fighters who lost their lives while struggling against the Indian atrocities in the occupied valley.

Later, Fateha was offered for the Kashmiri martyrs.