By NNN-APP
Islamabad : The Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that the time has come when India should take positive steps for resolving the Kashmir dispute once for all.
Mirwaiz said that New Delhi has to take positive steps for the resolution of the Kashmir issue and added that sooner New Delhi does it the better, KMS reported.
The APHC chief reiterated Kashmiris’ resolve that solution of the dispute would be searched through dialogue.
He said that the sacrifices of the people would never be allowed to go waste and added that the entire world is in support of the resolution of Kashmir issue as per the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
In WASHINGTON, a prominent scholar here has called for statesmanship and magnanimity for finding a just and lasting settlement of the decades-old Kashmir dispute.
Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of Washington-based Kashmiri American Council, emphasized the lingering dispute cannot be resolved without taking into account aspirations and sentiments of the Kashmiri people.
He said in a message to the international Kashmir conference being held in Geneva that Kashmiris welcome the dialogue between the two South Asian nations but seek inclusion of their voice to make negotiations meaningful. In this context, he cited examples of progress achieved in East Timor and Northern Ireland issues.
“The question is no longer if Kashmir’s right to self-determination will be honoured, but when — India will ultimately come to recognise that it has lost the struggle to choke freedom in Kashmir,” he stated.
Fai said that Kashmiri culture is neither vengeful nor retributive. “It teaches sympathy and compassion for all humans of whatever religion, ethnicity, or ideological persuasion.”
Kashmiris, he observed, are “deeply empathetic towards the victims of terrorism and other manifestations of human rights abuses because they daily experience the horrors themselves: extrajudicial killings that surpass 100,000 in the last decade and half alone, rape, torture, arbitrary detentions, and ruthless suppression of political expression.
“Indeed, advocacy for implementing the United Nations Security Council self-determination resolutions is criminal under Indian rule,” he added.