KL NEWSNETWORK
SRINAGAR
While reacting to the statements of Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Indian ambassador in Pakistan C Raghuram, the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Ahmad Shah on Tuesday said that sidelining the Kashmir issue “will complicate the issues instead of resolving it”.
As per a statement, Shah said, “Putting Kashmir issue on back burner or holding secret talks will obviously complicate the issue and as such, the dialogue process cannot move forward.”
Shah, however, said that he is not against the Indo-Pak talks or the steps taken to initiate the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) between these two nations, “but to expect the establishment of peace in South Asia without addressing the Kashmir issue is sheer foolishness.”
Strongly rejecting the “Out of Box” solution, Shah said that Kashmir dispute stands among the longstanding issues in the United Nations’ agenda and no solution will be acceptable if the real stakeholders – the Kashmiris – are not taken on board in the dialogue process.
Terming the statement of Indian ambassador in Pakistan C Raghuram as “far from reality and incorrect”, Shah said, “When we talk of Jammu and Kashmir, we mean that territory which existed before the partition of India and the referendum is the solution to resolve the disputed status of the whole region.”
Secret talks are nothing but “deception” which “will not yield any results” and reiterated that involving the Kashmiri resistance leadership in the composite dialogue process is inevitable, reads the statement.
“The border issue, mutual confrontation, trade exchange or Onion-Potato business cannot bring peace in the South Asia. India should acknowledge the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir and should express willingness to take the real stakeholders on board,” he said.
