Tearing into Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his statements on Kashmir, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday told him that his dream of the state becoming a part of his country “will not be realised even at the end of eternity”.
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Nawaz Sharif on Friday urged a crowd of supporters in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir, not to forget the sacrifices of people living in the Indian-controlled side. The statement of none other than the Prime Minister of Pakistan has betrayed this despicable design.
Highlighting that Kashmir as “an important part of the heart of every Indian”, the congressman said, “but today that crown is being insulted. Pakistan’s official stance on Kashmir is that it extends all-out moral support to Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom, and will continue to raise its voice for their right to self-determination at every platform”, it said.
Apart from the Kashmir side, we have also tried to see how the current wave of resistance will impact the India Pakistan peace process which is already moving rather slowly.
Burhan Wani was the leader of rebel group Hizbul Mujahideen, one of the several fighting some 500,000 Indian troops deployed in the region since 1989, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.
The article comes on the heels of Sharif’s statement on July 22 when he had said that Pakistan was waiting for the day Kashmir becomes its part. “But I would like to repeat that this dream of Pakistan will never be fulfilled”, she said. This right has been promised to the people of Kashmir by the UN Security Council. Many have been blinded by pellets used by the security forces. “If you return them to us, we will construct colleges, universities or parks so that people feel that our situation is improving as security forces were moving backwards and institutions and recreational facilities are being constructed there”, she said.
“It could only happen through talks or war. (Former PM) Manmohan Singh also took the process forward but the political process, the dialogue process, which started with L K Advani and the Hurriyet leaders here, was not taken forward”, she said.
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Maintaining that the PDP-BJP government had adopted a “good cop-bad cop policy”, the NC said on one hand state government spokesperson and Education Minister Naeem Akhtar went on record to re-affirm and justify the Government’s media gag, on the other the Chief Minister, through her Advisor Amitabh Mattoo, sought to “deny the existence of the media gag while publicly and ironically promising action against those responsible for “miscommunication” and “misrepresentation”.
