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| Finally, Pakistan terms scrapping of Article 370 India’s internal matter | | Tectonic shift in Kashmir politics! | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 8: What could change the dynamics of Indo-Pak politics to a large extent is the statement issued by Pakistan’s Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in which he has declared that abrogation of Article 370 was India’s internal matter.
Pakistan's tone on Kashmir seems to have softened amid reports of back channel talks in India-Pakistan. During an interview, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that removal of Article 370 from Kashmir is an internal matter of India. Talking to a news channel of Pakistan, Qureshi described Article 370 as an internal matter of India. He said that according to him, Article 370 was not as important. Asked what is important for Pakistan, he said that Article 35A. Qureshi said that 35A is important for Pakistan, because through this India can try to change the demography of Kashmir. This is meanwhile for the first time that such a drastic change in Pakistan’s approach has been witnessed vis-à-vis Kashmir and abrogation of the special status in Jammu and Kashmir. Such a statement also has a tendency to turn the tables around in Kashmir’s political landscape and change the decades old narrative. “Pakistan till date used to call Kashmir as its jugular vein. This is for the first time that from Pakistan’s foreign office, such a statement on Article 370 has been made. It hints at its change in approach and change in policy to the core,” says a Kashmir based senior scribe.
Meanwhile, there has already been a tectonic shift in separatist politics in Kashmir for a long time now.
In the year 2019, even ahead of the 370 abrogation, when home minister Amit Shah visited Valley, the separatists including Geelani for the first time since the eruption of militancy in 1990, issued no strike call on the Home Minister’s visit. Post Abrogation of 370, separatists issued no strike or chalo calls. It was in June 2018 when in a statement, the separatists jointly termed Kashmiris as hospitable and have even gone ahead with welcoming the Amarnath pilgrims to Valley. All this is being done by them to hoodwink public opinion and distract the masses from the crimes they have committed against the people and how they have repeatedly developed fear psychosis in the minds of then tourists against Kashmir, leaving the tourism sector dying on a deathbed. As NIA at that time had hinted at a massive crackdown against the Hurriyat once again, the separatists including Syed Ali Geelani- a known pro-Pakistani voice in Kashmir had begun welcoming the Amarnath pilgrims in June 29, 2018 statement. What he and other separatists forgot was their own venom they used to spit against the religious pilgrimage in the past. The statement that separatists issued about the annual Amarnath yatra was first of its kind since he formed his faction of Hurriyat conference. Geelani at that time termed the alleged “terror threat” to the upcoming Amarnath Yatra as a “calculated move aimed at maligning and discrediting the political struggle of Kashmiris.” Elaborating, he said that Amarnath yatra is being conducted for decades and the people here have treated the pilgrims with unique hospitality and received them as their guests.
On June 28, last year, the die- hard Pro Pakistani supporter who spearheaded several anti- India demonstrations in Kashmir shook everyone with his audio message in which he declared his quitting from Hurriyat Conference which he himself founded and has headed for about two decades. The reasons Geelani gave for leaving the amalgam was the lack of discipline within its ranks and silence maintained post abrogation of Article 370. |
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