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SRINAGAR: Veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani Tuesday called for Kashmir dialogue under the auspices of United Nations to resolve the decades-old dispute over the Himalayan territory between India and Pakistan.
“Until the dialogue is held under the auspices of the UN or any other friendly country, the Kashmiri leadership is included in the process and it is stated in clear terms that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the talks are being held to solve this dispute, till then all the dialogues will fail to deliver,” he said.
Chairing the Hurriyat’s Advisory Council meeting (Majlis-e-Shura) at his residence here, Geelani said the bilateral talks between India and Pakistan have failed to resolve Kashmir issue. “Kashmir is not any border dispute between India and Pakistan which they could mutually solve, but it is the issue of the future of 1.5 crore natives of Jammu and Kashmir and no decision can be imposed upon them,” Geelani said.
Asserting that the Hurriyat is not against the talks, Geelani said "more than 150 rounds" of talks during the last 68 years have failed to solve the Kashmir issue, “If both the countries continue to follow the same track, then we will not be wrong in saying that the fresh dialogue process is also merely a time-killing process and the two nations are not serious in resolving the main hurdle in their relations that is the Kashmir issue.”
Turning to Pakistan, Geelani said the government of that country must clear its stand on Kashmir. “Till Kashmiris are not taken into confidence regarding the recent talks and it is not elaborated that what stand Pakistan had adopted regarding the Kashmir issue in the ongoing dialogue process and what are their future strategies in this regard, our reservations will not end and we can’t support them,” he said.
Meanwhile, moderate Hurriyat chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq Tuesday welcomed the talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, saying that Kashmiris should be made part of the process.
“Kashmiris, being the fundamental party to the Kashmir dispute, cannot be left out of any process aimed at resolving it. It is the future of the people of Jammu and Kashmir which is supposed to be decided in the dialogue process on Kashmir,” a moderate Hurriyat spokesman said.
