NEELA BUTT, Aug 24: Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has asked India to resolve Kashmir issue through dialogue in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
He said that without resolving Kashmir issue, neither the threat of war with India could vanish nor the dialogue between the two countries could make progress. Sheikh Rashid was addressing a public meeting held in this village of southern Bagh district under the aegis of Muslim Conference.
The meeting was held to commemorate the launching of Jihad from here on Aug 23, 1947 against the Dogra regime of Jammu and Kashmir by veteran Kashmiri leader Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan.
"Kashmir is the only and basic issue between India and Pakistan whereas the rest are irritants," the minister said, warning that good neighbourly relations could not be established if the issue was not resolved in accordance with the UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiris.
"Let there be talks on Siachen and Wullar Barrage, but India will have to include Kashmir as a core issue in the composite dialogue and resolve it," he said in his speech.
The minister also made it clear that the conversion of the Line of Control into permanent border between India and Pakistan was not a solution to the problem and said that if anyone had such a solution in his mind it would not be acceptable to Pakistan and the Kashmiris.
He was of the view that mutual contacts, exchange of delegations, trade facilities and revival of road and air links would remain meaningless unless focus was laid on the settlement of the core issue.
He said Pakistan wanted to establish good relations with India but it should also reciprocate Islamabad's spirit. He asked India to stop atrocities and repression on innocent Kashmiris who he said had been demanding their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN resolutions.
The minister urged the world to differentiate between the freedom struggle and terrorism and said Pakistan fully condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He called upon the international media to depict the actual picture of Kashmir struggle and expose human right violations in the held territory at the hands of Indian forces.
The minister rejected allegations by some Indian ministers regarding infiltration across the LoC, and termed them "irresponsible statements aimed at vitiating the atmosphere".
In his speech AJK premier Sardar Sikandar Hayat said if the world was serious about peace between two nuclear South Asian nations, it should instantly intervene to resolve the Kashmir issue according to the wishes of the Kashmiris.
Without involving Kashmiris in the talks, the process could not deliver, he said. The PM said that the freedom movement in Kashmir was indigenous and did not enjoy any material support from outside. However, he thanked Pakistan for extending full moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiris in their just cause.
MC president Sardar Attique Ahmed said India could not contain the freedom movement, however high fence it may erect along the ceasefire line. Sardar Qayyum, who presided over the public meeting, also briefly spoke on the occasion.