Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party on Tuesday welcomed Donald Trump’s offer for mediation on Kashmir. Urging the Indian leadership to respond positively to Trump’s offer the DFP spokesman in a statement said that it was high time that New Delhi should accept the offer so that the issue of Kashmir could be settled peacefully once and for all.
“The lingering Kashmir dispute has been main cause of unrest and bloodshed in the region”, the statement said adding that it was golden opportunity for India to get rid of the conflict that has been a constant threat to peace and stability of the region. “India must demonstrate political wisdom and maturity by availing this great opportunity”, the statement added. The spokesman said that the US president Donald Trump’s remarks on Kashmir bear witness to the fact that India cannot hoodwink international community by paddling its concocted and baseless narratives.
Referring to the party president Shabir Ahmad Shah’s illegal and continuous detention the spokesman said that India had failed to break DFP Chairman’s resolve for freedom. Pertinently, the JKDFP chairman Shabir Ahmed Shah is completing his two-year imprisonment in Tihar jail on 25 July. The DFP chairman was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2017 and he was soon shifted to Tihar Jail Delhi where he is lodged till date. Terming Shah and other Kashmiri prisoners’ illegal detention as a flagrant violation of the international covenants the spokesman said that India being a signatory has no respect for the law, which exclusively speaks about the civil and political rights of the prisoners. Seeking an early release of the incarcerated party chairman the spokesman urged the world human right organizations to play their much needed role in release of Shabir Ahmed Shah and other political prisoners languishing in Indian jails and detention centers in and outside Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, welcoming the US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate Kashmir conflict, the former convener of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (Pak chapter) and senior vice president Democratic Freedom Party Mehmood Ahmed Saghar has said that it was high time that New Delhi should seize the moment and reciprocate positively”.
Terming the offer as a historic opportunity to seek a peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir-dispute, the DFP veteran in a statement here on Tuesday said, “Since the US president’s mediation offer has opened up a new window of opportunity to restart a meaningful and result oriented dialogue on Kashmir, it is high time that New Delhi should seize the moment and take concrete steps for permanent resolution of this issue”.
Saghar said that the India and Pakistan’s troubled relationship stands witness to the fact that the two countries have miserably failed to resolve the long pending Kashmir issue bilaterally. “It is time to move beyond bilateralism, it has badly failed to reach an agreement on Kashmir”, he said adding that the decades’ long conflict would continue to fuel uncertainty and unrest in the region if left unaddressed. He said that the struggling people of Jammu and Kashmir in general and Hurriyat leadership in particular have always supported a meaningful and constructive dialogue between India and Pakistan for the resolution of Kashmir dispute. While hailing Pakistan’s readiness to President Trump’s offer to mediate Kashmir issue Saghar said that deeper engagement on the part of the US government was imperative to bring New Delhi to the negotiating table.