Fai Urges UN To Push For Resolving Kashmir Dispute, Welcomes LoC Truce Accord

Fai urges UN to push for resolving Kashmir dispute, welcomes LoC truce accord

NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Mar, 2021 ) :A prominent Kashmiri leader has urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to intensify efforts aimed at resolving the Kashmir dispute, cautioning him not to be lulled into believing that the recent India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement will soften the conflict or lessen the urgency for mediatory initiatives.

"The policy that aims at merely defusing the situation, whatever that may mean, and not encouraging credible settlement has not paid in the past, and likely to do even less now," Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, secretary-general of the Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum, said in a statement in which he welcomed the ceasefire.

The accord for a ceasefire along the Line-of-Control in the disputed Kashmir region, he said, offers hope for peace in South Asia only if the course of justice was followed and the parties concerned undertake to abide by its commitments.

"We believe that talks between civilian governments and armed forces of India and Pakistan are the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue that has dominated the South Asian region for the last 73 years," Dr. Fai said.

"We are maintaining this constructive position, despite the outrage caused by the indescribable suffering inflicted on our people by 900,000 Indian occupation forces.

" He added, "We believe that the ceasefire between New Delhi and Islamabad can be meaningful if it is accompanied by practical measures to restore an environment of non-violence in Indian Illegally occupied Kashmir (IIOJK).

This, according to Fai, can be done by: Immediate cessation of military and para-military actions against the civilian population; withdrawal of the military presence from towns and villages; dismantling of bunkers, watchtowers and barricades; releasing of political prisoners; annulling various special repressive laws; restoring the rights of peaceful association, assembly and demonstrations; permission to travel abroad without hindrance, and issuing visas to the Kashmiri diaspora leadership to visit Jammu and Kashmir.

Fai warned against any consideration of the "Musharraf's formula", saying it envisaged self-governance without independence.

"The idea of self-governance is a deceptive and misleading term that gives an appearance of sovereignty without any substance," he said.

"Without actual sovereignty for Kashmir, under the Musharraf formula, the people of Kashmir will have to accept the supremacy and the rule of India over their lives," he added.