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| Indo-Pak dialogue process holds key to Kashmir problem: Sinha | | | New Delhi, Sep 15 The Indo-Pak composite dialogue process and the confidence building measures hold the key to a resolution of the Kashmir problem, Jammu and Kashmir Governor S K Sinha has said.
He also favoured the overtures by both countries to make the Line of Control "irrelevant" to promote free trade and movement of people from both sides.
"That can lead to burying the hatchet of the past, and the two countries fighting unitedly against common enemies of poverty, ignorance and disease.
"This can usher in peace and prosperity for the poeple of Kashmir", Lt Gen (Retd) Sinha said in a foreward to a book by Lt Gen (Retd) Mohan Bhandari, who was part of Military Operations Directorate and was intimately associated with the Kargil conflict and other operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
"We are moving towards a South Asian Economic Union like the European Union", Sinha said in the book titled 'Solving Kashmir' which is to be launched at a function here tomorrow, the same day when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold crucial talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
He said the CBMs and the composite dialogue "hold out promise for the future" and "the contours of a future seem to be emerging".
The Governor, who has been a veteran army officer with vast experience, said while Pakistan has "given up insistence on Plebiscite and the UN Resolutions (on Kashmir), India too has given up insistence of Kashmir being a settled issue".
"Pakistan has declared that the LoC in Kashmir should be made irrelevant allowing free movement of people from both sides. India has also stated that LoC be made a line of peace with free trade from both sides, without altering the national boundaries", Sinha said. Maintaining that there was an urge for peace among the people of India and Pakistan, he said "the people to people contact and the spontaneous upsurge of goodwill amongst them is a very encouraging phenomenon. The people of Kashmir are tired of violence and they yearn for peace and prosperity".
Going into the history of the dispute, he said Maharaja Hari Singh "could not make up his mind for joining either India or Pakistan till August 15, 1947" and was toying with the idea of becoming an independent state.
When Pakistan sent in the Army and raided Baramulla few weeks later, the Maharaja hurriedly signed the accession treaty with India and fled from Srinagar, Sinha said. |
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