WASHINGTON, Jan 20: A US state legislator, who recently visited Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, has sent a resolution to the New Hampshire Legislature urging the US government to help resolve the Kashmir issue.

Failure to resolve the conflict may lead to a nuclear conflict in South Asia, warns Robert Guida, the deputy majority leader of the New Hampshire Legislature.

“A conventional or nuclear war in that region,” he said, “would seriously hurt the interests of the United States and the international community.”

The resolution says that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are promised a plebiscite for self-determination by virtue of the United Nations Resolution dated April 3, 1948.

But the plebiscite, it notes, has never taken place because of political, religious and military conflicts within Southwest Asia.

Recognizing Kashmir as the main dispute between India and Pakistan, the resolution says that the failure to resolve this issue has caused the threat of nuclear war between India and Pakistan to reach unprecedented levels.

It says that the threat of a nuclear war will remain “unacceptably high” as long as this dispute is not settled.

A resolution to the continuing terrorism and strife related to Kashmir is unquestionably in the best interests of the people of the US and the comity of nations, it added.

“Therefore, be it resolved that the House and Senate of the State of New Hampshire request in strongest possible terms that House and Senate of the United States hold hearings to discern all relevant facts and circumstances attendant to the Kashmiri conflict so as to facilitate a just, peaceful, and rapid end to this conflict.

“And be it further resolved that these hearings be conducted without any undue delay to minimize the possibility of nuclear or conventional war in Southwest Asia, either of which would have serious ramifications for the people of the United States of America and the State of New Hampshire.”