Pakistan uses Kashmir peace conference for anti-India tirade

WASHINGTON - Pakistan is using a so-called peace conference here to drum up support for internationalising the Kashmir issue with calls to India to enter into “result-oriented talks” with Islamabad on what it terms a core issue.

“For us the most important thing is the rights of the Kashmiri people - we are committed to finding a resolution of the Kshmir dispute,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said at an “International Kashmir Peace Conference” on the Capitol Hill.

“Kashmir is not a territorial dispute,” he said calling Kashmir an issue that “tugs at our heart”. “It is about 12 to 14 million people of Kashmir, it is about Kashmiris’ right to self-determination, about killings, rapes, torture, mass graves.”

Pakistan is serious about resolving the longstanding conflict as it wants to have good relations with its eastern neighbour and expects reciprocity from New Delhi, Haqqani said. “We look forward to a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue with India on Kashmir.”

“The government of Pakistan is committed to continuing political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiri people.”

“We are interested in improving our relations with our much larger neighbour to the east, but we want to do that in a manner in which the basic rights of the Kashmiri people and their right to choose their future course (are protected) and be able to make a choice that will bring peace to the region.”

In the same vein, other Pakistani speakers too made allegations of serious violations of human rights by India in Kashmir and asked US President Barack Obama to “fulfil his election campaign pledge to help push efforts towards resolution of the longstanding dispute”.

“India should realise the ground realities and accept that realities cannot be rolled under the carpet,” said Pakistani Senator Mushahid Hussain, calling it the key issue fomenting tensions in South Asia.

The organisers, the Kashmiri American Council and Kashmir Centre and Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, even roped in a few US Congressmen to plug the Pakistani line.

The US lawmakers were cited as expressing their deep concern and dissatisfaction over the situation prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir and seeking “ending the persecution of people in the state and respecting human rights in the state”.

“The Congressmen were unanimous in their approach that for bringing peace in South Asia, the resolution of the Kashmir dispute has become imperative,” the organisers said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)