Srinagar: In occupied Kashmir, the Hurriyet forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq terming as realistic the statement of Pakistan that Kashmir remains the main cause of confrontations between New Delhi and Islamabad has urged India to respond positively to the Pakistan’s dialogue offer. A spokesman for the Hurriyet forum, in a statement in Srinagar said, “Indian leadership, for the betterment of millions of people of South Asia, should positively respond to Islamabad’s dialogue offer to resolve the 70-year-old dispute between the two countries by reaching at a long-lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute.†Asking India to give up its stubbornness and obduracy, the spokesman said, “The time has come that measures should be taken for the long-lasting resolution of Kashmir dispute as the issue is the main cause of confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors and thinking of settling other disputes without resolving Kashmir amounted to live in a make believe world.†He flayed the arrest of Muhammad Yasin Malik from Pulwama area and later his detention at Central Jail Srinagar. The spokesman said, “Using black laws against resistance leaders has become the norm of the puppet regime which often talks of respecting democratic norms and laws but has unleashed dictatorship in the guise of democracy, such aggressive tactics are never going to cow down the resistance leaders into submission.†Meanwhile, the spokesman expressed satisfaction over the release of Jammu & Kashmir Awami Action Committee (AAC) Secretary General Ghulam Nabi Zaki, who was held at Kot Bhalwal Jail in Jammu for several months and then at Police Station Sopore for two weeks. He was finally released on Friday. The spokesman called for immediate release of hundreds of other political prisoners who have been detained arbitrarily. .
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