Kashmir times warns against delay in Kashmir settlement

Srinagar, January 09, 2014 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, Jammu-based English daily has warned India and Pakistan of dire consequences against ignoring the Kashmir dispute in their ongoing dialogue process.

The newspaper in its editorial under the caption of ‘Resurrecting peace process’ says that the much needed India-Pakistan peace process has begun showing signs of slowly getting on the track but it may as well be quite off the mark with no inclination towards the inclusion of Kashmir issue into the charter of its so far limp and unfixed agenda.

The Hurriyet leadership has rightly pointed out the dangers of this non-exclusion of Kashmir and the inability to deal with the crisis of a gigantic magnitude within Kashmir, it adds.

“The issue is being ignored foolishly at the altar of massive traditional egos and hawkishness, even as it is assuming dangerous proportions with people’s patience having long run out and frustration and anger pushing the youth towards re-glamourising the gun,” it warns.

“The denial of democratic space within Kashmir and the unattended long festering sore of the political issue coupled with the continuing graph of human rights abuse and curbing of civil liberties has made Kashmir vulnerable to several dangers and these would need to be addressed with a sense of immediacy and sincerity by both New Delhi and Islamabad,” the editorial suggests.

The newspaper urges New Delhi to “understand that an over delay in dealing with the Kashmir dispute is not only pushing the people in Kashmir to the wall, forcing them into confines where amicable solutions seem a rare possibility. It is also causing much harm to the India-Pakistan bilateral peace process.”

India and Pakistan would thus need to begin spade work for pushing in not just official level channels into the agenda but also people to people level contact as well as dialogues for Kashmir on the two sides of the Line of Control with New Delhi and Islamabad, it opines.

“Kashmir having been recognized as a global nuclear flashpoint, the imperatives of this peace process cannot be negated. The sooner the realization dawns the better and the sooner the push for amicable negotiations for building mutual trust, co-operation and final resolution, the best for the south Asian region,” it concludes.

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Kashmir Media Service
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