Monday March 15, 2010 Mashriq Group of Newspapers         Editor-in-Chief Syed Ayaz Badshah
 

Hurriyat welcomes Saudi mediation offer

JEDDAH: Chairman Huriyat Conference (HC) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that Huriyat Conference would welcome the mediation of Saudi Arabia in negotiations between Pakistan and India.

In an interview with a private TV channel in Jeddah here on Sunday, Mirwaiz said that Saudi Arabia has had played a vital role in issues of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine adding Saudi Arabia can also play a critical role as a mediator in Kashmir issue.

He said that peace in South Asia is linked with resolution of Kashmir dispute. Negotiations without participation of Kashmiris would be meaningless in this regard, he said.

Mirwaiz said that nine thousand Kashmiris have been missing for the last twenty years.

He appealed the human rights organisations, Asian Watch and other international organisations to pay heed towards issue of Kashmir.

He also urged international community to stop India from torturing innocent people in the occupied Kashmir.

He called upon India to give Kashmiris their right of self-determination according to UN resolutions under the UN auspices.

Farooq arrived in the Kingdom on Thursday to perform Umrah and his visit, two weeks after the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is significant.

“Currently a rethink is going on in India. Given the strengthening of ties between India and the Kingdom, New Delhi would be more comfortable with Saudi mediation than any other country,” said the Hurriyat leader.

Farooq said the appointment by US President Barack Obama of Farah Pandit, a Kashmiri Muslim woman, as special representative for Muslim communities, was an indication of the US administration’s approach to the Kashmir problem. He said some “back channel” dialogue was going on but refused to divulge details.

He referred to Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to South Asia, and said although his main job was to deal with the Afghan problem, Kashmir was part of his brief, which was another indication of the Obama administration’s responsive approach.

Insisting on a “political solution” to the Kashmir issue, Farooq said in the given situation, the “Musharraf formula” was workable. He was referring to former President Pervez Musharraf who suggested that India and Pakistan should consider the option of identifying some “regions” of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control, demilitarise them and grant them the status of independence or joint control or under a UN mandate.

The idea floated in the past of declaring the Line of Control as an international border was “not at all workable,” he said.

 

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