NEW DELHI - Amid a growing bonhomie between the
foreign policy establishments of India and Pakistan,
secret meetings between national security advisers, the
Indian foreign secretary not ruling out border changes
for peace and new nuclear doctrines being evolved,
Kashmiris from both sides of the Line of Control (LoC)
that divides the two Kashmirs are becoming restive.
After all, it is their fate that hangs in the balance.
Top Kashmiri leaders from both India and
Pakistan have complained in exclusive interviews with
Asia Times Online how they are being sidelined in the
unfolding drama, and they don't like it one bit. Their
commitment to contributing to peace in the
sub-continent, they say, is total. They believe that
Kashmir can only progress in a secure, peaceful South
Asia; but at the same time they, too, want to be heard.
With one voice, they say that they want to be
allowed to talk, among themselves first and then with
their respective governments, and finally in tripartite
talks with the governments of both countries.
Calling Asia Times Online's Delhi office from
Nottingham, England, top Kashmiri leader from the
Pakistani-occupied area designated as "Azad"
(independent) Kashmir, Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan, head
of the ruling Muslim Conference, demanded that Kashmiri
politicians and intellectuals of all hues from both
sides of the LoC be allowed to open a dialogue among
themselves so that they can evolve a collective strategy
for dealing with the governments of both countries.
In an hour-long telephonic interview on
Wednesday, Attique proposed for this purpose holding a
series of meetings, possibly starting from Delhi, and
then Islamabad and finally Srinagar and Muzaffarabad
(the latter two being the capitals of the respective
sides of the LoC), to enable Kashmiris on both sides of
the LoC to get together and talk freely among
themselves.
"In view of possible Pakistan-India
talks, it is necessary that the Kashmiris should also
sit together to thrash out a common plan of action on
Kashmir solution," Attique told AToL. Attique is the
president of the Muslim Conference that runs the Azad
Kashmir government with a two-thirds majority in the
legislative assembly. He is the son of veteran Kashmiri
politician Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, who was prime
minister as well as president of Azad Kashmir for
several terms.
President General Pervez
Musharraf of Pakistan constituted a high-powered Kashmir
Committee headed by Sardar Qayyum in 2000 to advise the
Pakistan government on matters relating to Kashmir.
Since the establishment of a new government in Pakistan
under Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali,
following general elections in 2002, however, the
committee has not yet been reconstituted.
Attique told AToL the unfolding situation in the
sub-continent needed exhaustive talks among Kashmiris,
even though he could say on the basis of his experience
in what was billed as the first intra-Kashmir dialogue
held in London earlier this month that there already is
complete harmony among the Kashmiris' approach on both
sides of LoC. Sardar Attique welcomed India's recent
peace offer to Pakistan, adding that the offer should
have coincided with cessation of hostilities by the
Indian forces in Kashmir.
"Indeed, there are
powerful forces on both sides of the LoC that do not
want the peace process to succeed," Attique said, but
refused to elaborate any further. Once a powerful
advocate of American mediation, now he says: "There
would be no need for third party mediation if Islamabad
and New Delhi sat down with an open mind to seriously
take up the contentious issues."
Asked about the
possibilities of the resolution of the Kashmir problem,
he said he was confident that once Kashmiris sat
together they would be able to find a solution that
would not embarrass either India or Pakistan and
amicably resolve the issue. His focus, however, was on
the participation of Kashmiris in the evolution of a
solution that is essentially linked to their fate.
Asked about how he could contribute to the
creation of a congenial atmosphere in the sub-continent
with the cessation of militancy that has not abated,
despite peace talks, he said: "If Indian security forces
withdraw from population centers of Kashmir and cease
operations that lead to repression of the people, we
Kashmiris can jointly appeal to the militants to cease
their hostile acts and help create an atmosphere that
can lead to success in talks."
In a significant
departure from the prevailing political opinion in
Pakistan, Attique said that Musharraf need not
relinquish his position as chief of the Pakistan army,
as he is constitutionally committed to do by December
this year. Political stability in Pakistan, he said, is
a vital requirement for the resolution of the Kashmir
problem and peace in the region.
In view of
growing uncertainties in the region and the world at
large, as well as militant activities in various parts
of Pakistan, the deteriorating situation in Karachi and
several attempts at assassination of Musharraf himself:
"It doesn't matter if he divests himself of his uniform
according to the schedule to which he is committed or
some months later.
"I am not necessarily saying
that President Musharraf should stay in uniform. If he
is able to stick to the schedule, fine. But the priority
should be given to the political stability of Pakistan.
One of the ways in which political parties can ensure
stability is that they can reaffirm in very clear terms
the primacy of the president, so that his authority is
not diluted even if he is out his military uniform.
Pervez Musharraf should have the opportunity to take his
peace initiative to its logical end," Attique
elaborated.
Making a strong case for
intra-Kashmir dialogue, he said: "We have already made a
formal representation to the government of Pakistan and
now through AToL we want to reach the Indian government
and people and plead our case for permitting Kashmiris
to travel across the LoC and issue visas to them
allowing them to meet and evolve a joint strategy. We
merely want to help and complement their efforts. We do
not want either of them to be embarrassed or feel
defeated. In the end our destiny should be in our hands.
That is what the struggle is basically for," said
Attique.
Top Kashmiri leader from the Indian
side of the LoC, recently re-elected member of the
Indian parliament from the militancy-infested Baramulla
district of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Abdul Rashid
Shaheen of the National Conference, agrees and points
out that "Kashmiris have been struggling for taking
their destiny in their own hands - call it
self-determination if you like - since before
independence from the British in 1947."
Shaheen
was the youngest minister in the late 1970s in the
government of veteran Kashmiri freedom fighter and
redoubtable leader, the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
Abdullah had assumed the office of the prime minister of
Jammu and Kashmir following its accession to India in
1947 and later accepted the post of chief minister
following agreements with the government of prime
minister Indira Gandhi after protracted negotiations in
the mid-1970s.
Shaheen was one of the
participants at the London conference of Kashmiris from
both sides of the divide. He pointed out that
intra-Kashmir dialogue is indeed the need of the hour.
In 2002, he said, one of the National Conference's
leaders, G M Shah, embarked on this project. He wanted
to organize such a meet in India. But the move was
scuttled over visa problems.
"I don't understand
why government officials in India and Pakistan are so
afraid of Kashmiri leaders getting together," he added.
Anyway, he is happy that a beginning has been made,
though he supports Attique that such conferences should
be held in India and Pakistan and also both parts of
Jammu and Kashmir. "Allow us to meet and exchange notes.
Nothing but good will come out of this process," he
adds.
Just back from attending the London
conference along with his party leader and former chief
minister Farooq Abdullah, Shaheen takes heart from the
support extended by former Pakistan prime minister
Benazir Bhutto to the idea of making South Asia a free
trade zone. Addressing the conference, she called for
continuing the peace process and reminded Kashmiris that
it was a government of her Pakistan People's Party that
can be truly called the architect of the policies of
soft border and greater travel links across the LoC.
Lessening of militant violence, she said, can be
calibrated with the reduction of Indian troops in
Kashmir. This can lead to soft borders that are also
safe from militants.
Talking to AToL, Shaheen
pointed out that the need for intra-Kashmir dialogue has
been felt for a long time among Indian well-wishers of
Kashmir too. On the Indian side, the Kashmir Committee
(KC), headed by former union law minister Ram
Jethmalani, too, has initiated and promoted the idea of
an intra-Kashmir dialogue. During its meetings with the
separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference and
Democratic Freedom Party chief, Shabbir Shah, the KC
agreed to work for creating conditions which would be
conducive for negotiations leading to a permanent
settlement. The senior Hurriyat leader and the chairman
of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) ,
Mohammad Yasin Malik, has also spoken in favor of
intra-Kashmir dialogue as a first step to peace. Indeed,
this month's conference in London was organized by Dr
Shabir Choudhry, chairman of the diplomatic committee of
the JKLF.
The KC has been seeking to invite the
Pakistani Kashmir Committee headed by former Azad
Kashmir prime minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan. It has
urged the government of India to grant visas to the
committee members. Jethmalani has been clear that the
talks should involve both "those who have been elected
by the people and also those who did not participate in
the elections". His standpoint was that "we are friends
of Kashmir and want the issue resolved and will try to
convince those who have a different viewpoint".
In pursuance of this policy, Jethmalani and his
colleagues met the Hurriyat leaders, including Mirwaiz
Umar Farooq, Abdul Gani Bhat, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Peer
Hafizullah Makhdoomi, Khalil Mohammad Khalil and Ali
Mohammad Sheikh. India's Kashmir Committee consists of
veteran journalists and intellectuals like Dileep
Padgaonker, M J Akbar, Ashok Bhan and Shanti Bhushan.
That the Kashmir conference in London was able
to attract prominent personalities from both India and
Pakistan is a tribute to the atmosphere of peace that
the people of both countries have helped build up
following the Islamabad conference of the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation early this year in
which the leaders of both countries met and decided to
restart the stalled peace process. The conference was
attended by Benazir Bhutto, Farooq Abdullah, chair of
Pakistan's All Party National Alliance and prominent
North West Frontier Province leader Hasil Bizenjo, among
a host of other politicians and social activists from
nearly all parts of the state.
"It's the first
time Indians, Pakistanis and Kashmiris can sit down
together and discuss an important truth - that there can
be no military solution to the Kashmir dispute," exulted
conference organizer Shabbir Choudhry, who apart from
heading the JKLF's diplomatic committee is also a
spokesman for the London-headquartered International
Kashmir Alliance of a number of groups active in
Kashmir.
It would appear from the exclusive peek
into the Kashmiri mind that AToL has been able to get
this week that the Kashmiris are planning to take a
Northern Ireland route to peace. This, however, will not
be possible unless politicians like Attique start
speaking out against the gun culture that has developed
in Kashmir over the past decade and a half.
There can be no peace unless the gun is taken
out of the area. The original inspiration of the
militancy, the JKLF has already renounced violence. Its
chairman and former militant Yasin Malik takes every
opportunity to express his antipathy to the gun and love
for the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence.
Talking is certainly better than shooting.
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