Be sympathetic to Kashmiris’ grievances, urges Muslim cleric
By IANSSaturday, October 23, 2010
ISLAMABAD - A prominent Indian Muslim cleric has urged the Indian government to be serious about resolving the Kashmir issue and take a “sympathetic view” of the Kashmiris’ grievances, a Pakistani paper reported Saturday.
“The Indian government should adopt a serious approach to solving the Kashmir problem and take a sympathetic view of the grievances of the Kashmir Valley’s people,” Mufti Mohammad Mukarram, the Imam of New Delhi’s Fatehpuri Mosque, told the Urdu daily Jang in a telephonic interview.
Terming the curfew and restrictions in the Valley for over the last three-four months as an “unwise” step, he said if the Indian government considers the Kashmiris to be Indian citizens, then the Kashmiris should be entitled to the same rights as available to Indian citizens in the country’s other states.
The almost regular curfew in the Kashmir Valley has placed a question mark on India’s democratic system, he said, according to the paper.
The Mufti also said that the respective stands of the Kashmiri leaders whom the members of the all-parliamentary delegation met during their recent visit to the Valley must be examined with “an open heart and in all seriousness”.
