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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. |
