Srinagar, February 19 (KNO) : Urging people of India and Pakistan not to forget that Kashmiris are suffering because of their seventy year long animosity, AIP President Er Rasheed Tuesday appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show statesmanship and accept Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s offer to talk on all issues including much talked Pulwama attack.
In a statement issued to KNO, Er. Rasheed said, “People of India have every right to mourn the death of soldiers but using the death of soldiers as an excuse to harass Kashmiris everywhere has to stop and is unjustified.”
He said let the common masses in India and Pakistan realize that the Kashmiris had no issues with the people of the subcontinent till 15 August 1947 and without blaming anyone let Indians and Pakistanis understand that why should Kashmir be made the battle field and fuel of an unending war which they were never interested till India and Pakistan achieved freedom.
“It needs to be understood that nothing lies in the hands of Kashmiris and they are just victims of the conflict which was thrusted upon them by the utterances of the leadership of two countries in 1947. Kashmiris simply want end to bloodshed by getting Kashmir dispute resolved once for all,” he said.
Er Rasheed appealed PM Modi not to listen to the hawkish voices and not make India’s policy subservient and dependent on TV debates and those sitting in cozy rooms without feeling heat from any side. “Imran Khan is right in saying that it is easy to start a war but very difficult to end it. Wars bring only destruction and nothing else. Those talking war should ask the mothers of soldiers fighting at the borders or discharging their duties on either side of the LoC, that what war means to them,” he said.
Narendra Modi should respond positively to Imran Khan’s offer and not out rightly reject what Imran Khan has said. The past thirty years experience is enough to conclude that it is not easy for anyone to underestimate the other side, he added.
He said huge majority of Indians do fully realize the devastating consequences of confrontation and so do Kashmiris and Pakistanis understand that there is no shortcut to peace and resolution to Kashmir dispute except involving all stake holders with sincerity to find an everlasting resolution to Kashmir dispute in its historic perspective.(KNO)