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JKLF leader urges US to ensure time-bound Kashmir talks

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Srinagar, India, April 15, IRNA -- A top separatist leader Wednesday urged Obama administration to ensure a time-bound framework in talks between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris for a speedy solution to the Kashmir issue, and demanded a more active US involvement in this context.

The head of the political affairs bureau in the US embassy in New Delhi, Theodre Osius, who arrived in the Kashmir valley on a three-day visit Tuesday.

He called on Hurriyat leader Bilal Ghani Lone, and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, and is scheduled to meet the chief minister, Omar Abdullah, and leaders of the pro-freedom camp, including acting chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Maulana Abbas Ansari and head of hardline faction Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Wednesday, sources said.

In his meeting with the diplomat, Bilal held India responsible for the present situation in the state, saying that peace was becoming impossible because of New Delhi's intransigence.

The JKLF chairman, Muhammad Yasin Malik (pictured) reminded the US diplomat that after 9/11 Kashmiris had unilaterally made a transition to a non-violent struggle in deference to the new world charter of solving all issues peacefully.

Pointing out that the JKLF had taken the lead in this as far back as 1994, Malik said that his party had undertaken a two-and-a-half-year long signature campaign in 2002, and set off on a one-year journey of freedom in 2007 in a bid to promote non-violent forms of resistance.

Malik told the diplomat of the massive peaceful uprising in Kashmir in the summer of 2008, which he said had been crushed by India by force.

"Nearly a hundred people were killed and thousands injured, but still Kashmiris did not take recourse of violence," he said.

He said that the US and other countries had the moral and humanitarian responsibility to respect the peaceful struggle of Kashmiris and ensure a time-bound frame work of talks between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris for a speedy solution to the Kashmir issue.

Malik called for a key US role in this context as it was a friend of both India and Pakistan.

"If the world respects the peaceful and democratic struggle of Kashmiris, and the issue is resolved, it would serve as a model for other world issues, particularly Islamic movements, and the globe would be rid of violence and oppression for ever," Malik said.