Kashmir talks futile after Krishna’s comments: Pakistani editorial

ISLAMABAD - There is no possibility of resolving the Kashmir dispute through talks after Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna shot down his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s proposal to seek US mediation and demanded Pakistan vacate that part of Kashmir it was “illegally occupying”, a Pakistani daily said Saturday.

The Indian minister had said there was no scope of involving a third party in the issue and reiterated that Kashmir was an inalienable part of India, the editorial in the Nawa-i-Waqt said, wondering what scope for a negotiated solution through talks or back-channel diplomacy did it leave.

“There is no denying that disputes can be resolved through talks but it requires commitment and sincerity from the other party,” it said, adding Krishna’s comments had exposed the “perfidy” of the Indian side.

“Now Shah Mahmood Qureshi should answer what negotiated solution of the Kashmir issue has been left after Krishna’s comments?”

The editorial said the Kashmir dispute was the last problem left from the agenda of India’s partition and when Pakistan had taken action, India went running to the United Nations. “The UN had sought that the Kashmiris be allowed to decide their own future but for 62 years, India has been dithering on this issue,” it said.

Claiming India has several times itself accepted Kashmir as a dispute, it said several rounds of talks had been held between the two countries but to no avail.

The editorial said it was time for Pakistan to abandon the “meaningless” talks and “play its required role in taking the Kashmiris’s struggle for freedom to its “desired conclusion”.

“The Kashmiris have made many sacrifices without any hesitation. In the nearly four months of ‘Quit Kashmir’ campaign, at least 150 have been martyred, over 1,500 are injured and over 3,000 have been stuffed in jails,” it said, adding it was now time that Pakistan “did its due share”.