'Border truce won't resolve Kashmir dispute'

AJK president Masood Khan says India must stop massacre of Kashmiris

KARACHI:

A fragile border truce between longtime nuclear rivals Pakistan and India will not resolve the long-smoldering Occupied Kashmir dispute, Azad Jammu & Kashmir President Masood Khan, said on Monday

In an interview with a private news channel, Khan observed that the cease-fire at the Line of Control (LoC) -- a de facto border that divides the picturesque Himalayan valley between the two neighbors -- and de-escalation of tensions would "neither resolve the Kashmir issue nor would peace return to the region."

On Feb. 25 this year, India and Pakistan agreed to honour a border cease-fire the two countries had signed in 2003.

Since Aug. 5, 2019, when India scrapped the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir,
dozens of people have been killed and scores have been injured in cross-border firings that have been the most intense in the past 17 years.

Read India violates ceasefire along Working Boundary after over two months

"To bring peace, India must stop the massacre of the Kashmiri people and take decisive steps to grant the fundamental right of self-determination to them," said Khan, who also served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2012 to 2015.

"Kashmiris must be consulted and taken into confidence about whatever the decision is to be made about Kashmir because none other than the Kashmiri people can be sincerer to Pakistan," he went on to say.

He was apparently referring to reported United Arab Emirates-brokered backdoor diplomacy between New Delhi and Islamabad which aims to provide a roadmap for long-term peace and a possible solution to the 73-year-old Kashmir dispute.

Citing New Delhi's August 2019 move, Khan said he does not see "any sincerity in the offer of the Indian leadership to resolve the Kashmir issue through talks."

Read Former diplomats, generals caution on backchannel talks with India

Khan said that mounting pressure from the international community after the August 2019 actions has "temporarily" compelled India to talk about a negotiated solution to issues.

"The restoration of Article 35-A by India is not enough for confidence building. On the contrary, India would have to recognise the whole of Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory and would have to revive the pre-Aug. 5, 2019 position of the state in order to pave the way for talks," he maintained.

Kashmiris, he further said, will get relief only when India lifts the siege of "occupied" Kashmir, ceases the killing spree of Kashmiri people, gives up settling Indian Hindus in Kashmir and stops attempts to change the demography of the state.

According to several human rights organisations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.