Post-2014 scenario: Attique urges talks to preclude possible influx of fighters

Ex-PM of Azad Kashmir says fighters might move from Afghanistan to Kashmir .

ISLAMABAD:

All Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference (MC) President Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan has urged both Pakistan and India to initiate serious dialogue to resolve the festering dispute over the Himalayan state of Kashmir.

Attique also said that he was seriously worried about the possible influx of militants from Afghanistan into Kashmir if Pakistan and India failed to start result-oriented talks before the end of 2014.



“It is high time the two countries initiated meaningful dialogue as there are apprehensions that informal fighters may move towards the mountains of Kashmir after withdrawal of the bulk of foreign troops from Afghanistan by December 2014.

“However, it is also necessary that the Kashmiris are involved in the dialogue process,” said Attique, who twice served as the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, in an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune.

“The withdrawal [of foreign troops] will definitely encourage informal fighters who might consider it essential to continue their activities in an old war theatre such as Kashmir,” Attique said.



He also suggested a number of measures that could broaden the scope of understanding among the Kashmiris from both sides – AJK and Indian-held Kashmir – to facilitate ‘securing the right to self-determination’.

“This right has been recognized by the whole world through the United Nations. India, as a party to the dispute, is a signatory to the Kashmir resolutions of the UN Security Council and of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) regarding grant of this right to the Kashmiris,” he said.

The former AJK premier also suggested formation of a joint Kashmir self-determination forum, inter-Kashmir visits by the heads of Muzaffarabad and Srinagar administrations and opening of the entire Line of Control for free travel, trade and tourism.

“Security issues in South Asia must be addressed by the political leadership of the whole region,” he said while floating the idea of a dialogue among the military leaderships of both South Asian countries simultaneously alongside their political leadership.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2014.