Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Sunday said he hoped the new regime in India will change its Kashmir policy as “former Pime Mnister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also had realised that military approach was no solution”.
Speaking at a seminar in Srinagar, the Mirwaiz said, “The Kashmir issue will not be resolved through army might and violent methods. I hope the new government to be formed in India will review its Kashmir policy.”
The Mirwaiz said separatists were reasdy to support dialogue between India and Pakistan over the protracted Kashmir issue. “Anti-Kashmir measures like the closing down of the [Jammu-Srinagar] highway, raids by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) [on traders and separatists], [wrongful enforcement of] Public Safety Act (PSA), and transferring land to [Armed] Forces, will not lead to any solution,” he added.
Former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Mirwaiz said, realised that there was no military solution to the Kashmir dispute and advocated a solution within the ambit of humanity. “We aren’t against the people of India. We are against the policies of India that are being implemented here,” he added.
He said the Government of India must roll back its decisions, especially on the ban on the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI); end the “stalling of the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs)”; and release separatist leaders without any pre-conditions.
“It was unfortunate that New Delhi choked all means of peaceful protests, seminars. How can ideas come up when all space stands choked?” he asked.
The Hurriyat chairman said separatists have pinned their hopes that the new government at the Centre will push for a dialogue. “We support peaceful resolution of the issue,” he said.
The results of the Lok Sabha polls will be declared on May 23.