Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said on Thursday that the only way forward in Kashmir was through dialogue, and not by employing coercive methods.
“There is no solution to the Kashmir issue other other than the path showed by the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. It’s initiating a dialogue, if we seek peace and prosperity in the region,” Ms. Mufti said, speaking on the fifth death anniversary of her father.
Ms. Mufti, who paid tributes to her father at the graveyard located in south Kashmir's Bijbehara, asked the Centre “to pay heed to Mufti’s vision of reconciliation with Pakistan”.
“New Delhi should make borders irrelevant and start reconciliation with Pakistan. Human heart can’t be conquered through repressive measures. Even the United States pulled out troops from Afghanistan and chose to start a dialogue with Taliban. You can imprison a person, but not his ideology,” she said.
Describing J&K “as a crown of India”, the former Chief Minister said J&K, despite being a Muslim majority State, joined hands with India in 1947. “However, the decisions taken on August 5, 2019 have alienated the people, more than strengthening the existing bond between Kashmir and New Delhi,” she added.
She said her father believed in the mantra that neither grenades nor bullets would address the Kashmir issue, only dialogue would.
“My father ensured cordial relations with Pakistan, ceasefire on borders and irrelevance of borders, like the Muzaffarabad [in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir) stretch,” she said.
