ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Free trade across the Line of Control (LoC) dividing two parts of Kashmir should be allowed to create an enabling environment for the peace process between India and Pakistan to move forward.
This was proposed by speakers at a seminar on Pakistan-India peace process arranged by the Institute of Policy Studies here on Tuesday. Mr Ved Bhasin, Chief Editor of Kashmir Times, Jammu, said the exclusion of Kashmiris from the dialogue was not allowing the process to make a significant headway.
“Kashmir is the major and core issue between the two countries and no solution could be found out unless the people of Kashmir are involved in the dialogue”, he remarked. He was of the view that intra Kashmir dialogue, free movement and free trade across the Line of Control should be allowed to build a consensus on the core issue.
He said these curbs should be removed as Jammu and Kashmir was one entity and stressed that the unity of Jammu and Kashmir must be maintained at all costs. “Why the people in one part cannot meet the people in the other part”, he questioned.
He said he was not satisfied with the pace of peace process but still believed that this was the only way. “The peace process has not moved forward, but has not been reversed”, he noted. He said the time had proved that guns, violence and wars were no solution. He called upon civil society in both the countries to come forward and pressurize their governments to involve Kashmiris in the peace process. “Ultimately it would be for the people of Kashmir to accept or reject any proposed solution”, he pointed out.
He said there were confidence building measures (CBMs) between India and Pakistan, but there were no signs of CBMs in Kashmir. “There are human rights violations, killings, search operations, prisoners languishing in jails, disappearances, and exploitation of women in the Indian Held Kashmir”, he remarked.
Ved Bhasin stressed that India should unilaterally its occupation troops from the Held Kashmir, so that concerns of Kashmiris could be heard in a democratic environment without any fear.