Ansari says, peace in SA linked with Kashmir resolution

ISLAMABAD, Feb 29 (APP): In occupied Kashmir, Maulana Abbas Ansari, the Acting Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), has said that peace and security in South Asia is linked with the resolution of Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations.
Addressing a public meeting at Chattabal, Srinagar, Maulana Abbas Ansari said, “Kashmir issue is the basic cause of tension in the region. Unless it is resolved either through implementation of the UN Resolutions or tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris, peace would continue to elude the region.”
The APHC leader said that democratically and economically stable Pakistan would help resolve the Kashmir issue.
Ansari expressed the hope that the new government in Pakistan would continue the country’s moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris’ just struggle.
Meanwhile, the APHC has intensified its mass-contact campaign in Jammu to further boost the ongoing freedom struggle and has enhanced the process of deputing its leaders to different areas of the occupied territory to apprise the people about its stand on Kashmir.
As a part of the programme, the APHC leaders, Nayeem Ahmad Khan and Syed Saleem Gilani along with others, are visiting different areas in Jammu for the last two days to activate Hurriyet members and mobilize public support to Hurriyet activities.
Nayeem Ahmed Khan, who is currently on his visit to Rajouri and Poonch, has stressed upon the APHC workers to play their role in making Hurriyet more effective and broad based.
He demanded an immediate halt to human rights violations in occupied Kashmir by the Indian troops.

Kashmir's Pashmina Goats Are Dying of Starvation, BBC Reports

By Ed Johnson
Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- At least 600 goats in Kashmir that provide the wool for Pashmina shawls died of starvation because of cold weather and food shortages in the Himalayan region, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Thousands more goats face death after the Ladakh region of India's Jammu and Kashmir state experienced its heaviest snowfall in 30 years, the broadcaster said on its Web site.
Winter stocks of fodder and emergency supplies sent by the government have run out, the BBC reported, citing unidentified officials in the region.
Embroidered shawls made from Pashmina wool are among Kashmir's best-known handicrafts and are exported worldwide, according to the report.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at

US envoy proposes a plan to resolve the Kashmir issue

Washington , Feb 26 (ANI): In an effort to resolve the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan a former American diplomat, Wendy Chamberlin, has proposed the appointment of a US envoy.

Wendy Chamberlin served as ambassador to Pakistan during 2001-02.

We should appoint a high-ranking envoy to negotiate with the two parties on a resolution in Kashmir, She also asked the President George Bush administration to call for restoration of the Supreme Court judges who were disposed last year as that would show that we really do believe in the rule of laws, The Nation quoted Chamberlin, as saying.

That was the Supreme Court that was being more aggressive in the protection of the people, she said. And if we want to send a positive message to the Pakistani people that we support them that would be a very clear way to do this.

Chamberlin added that if the Kashmir issue is resolved then extremism could also be curbed down. This will ultimately lead to peace in South Asia .

I think were in a new era. I think that this has been a watershed election, and I dont think that we should be tied to what happened in the past. We ought to see what ought to be in the future, and thats what we ought to target.

While talking about strengthening the US counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan , she emphasised that the US should see that road to peace in Pakistan leads through New Delhi .

Chamberlin, who now heads a Washington think tank, said it was this dispute only which had brought the two countries on the verge of a nuclear war. She said this issue is also coming in the way of restoration of peaceful relationship between Pakistan-India.

The former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Karl Inderfurth also appreciated President Pervez Musharraf for establishing a relationship and a dialogue with India which had led to some progress on the long-standing dispute.

Ever since their close to confrontation in 2001 and 2002, they have done thing - Musharraf and Manmohan Singh - to place Pakistan- India relations on a path toward normalizing this relationship. He was optimistic that if the leaders of two large Pakistani parties, PPPP and PML-N follow a peace approach, we can see some real progress on Pakistan-Indian relations, including on Kashmir , which they both recognize must be resolved, Inderfurth said.

Another former State Department official Dennis Kux said, For the stability of Pakistan and so that it can focus on dealing with its many domestic problems, it would be very helpful if the frontier problems with India and Afghanistan were resolved. In the case of India , this concerns the Kashmir dispute, and I hope that Islamabad and Delhi can continue to make progress toward a resolution of this long-standing dispute. In the case of Afghanistan , Pakistan already accepts the Durand Line as the frontier. It is in the interest of Afghanistan that it also accepts this border. (ANI)

Kashmir Singh to return home to India after 35 years

ISLAMABAD: Federal Caretaker Minister for Human Rights (HR) Ansar Burney announced on Wednesday he had successfully located the family of an Indian national who had been languishing in a death cell in a Pakistani prison for the last 35 years.Kashmir Singh had been arrested in 1973 in Rawalpindi, and soon afterward, was sentenced to death by a military court in Lahore on charges of espionage. He had been languishing in a death cell ever since, in conditions that Burney described as “hell on Earth”.A HR Ministry statement said that after locating Singh, Burney had launched a campaign through the ministry and through his own HR organisation, the Ansar Burney Trust (ABT), to search for Singh’s family.ABT acting Chairman Syed Fahad Burney said the family had now been located in Hoshiarpur (Indian Punjab), where Singh’s wife and family had been waiting for his return for the last 35 years.On Wednesday morning, Burney visited Central Jail Lahore to meet Singh and to inform him of the progress they had made for his release and on locating his family, the statement said, adding that Singh thanked Burney and requested him to accompany the former when he would return to India. Singh also requested that a suit be provided, which he could wear for his homecoming. Burney promised that he would fulfill both of Singh’s wishes, and would also ensure that adequate steps were taken for his rehabilitation back in India, the statement said.

‘Bilateral talks will never resolve Kashmir dispute’

WASHINGTON: Bilateral talks between India and Pakistan in the last 60 years have been fruitless and unless the Kashmiri people are associated by the two countries as equal partners, the situation will remain unchanged, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai said at a panel discussion on Kashmir on Wednesday afternoon.Fai is the executive director of the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council. He said the Kashmiri leadership was not against bilateral talks between India and Pakistan, but it wanted them to be purposeful. Any attempt to strike a deal between any two parties without the association of the third party involved, would only fail to produce a credible settlement, he said.“India and Pakistan tried this at Tashkent in 1966, at Simla in 1972, at Lahore 1998 and at Agra in 2001. These agreements failed because they sought to bypass the primary party, the people of Kashmir. Similarly, the agreement between Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952, the pact between Abdullah and Indira Gandhi in 1975, and the agreement between Farooq Abdullah and Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s sought to bypass Pakistan, which was why the basic issue remained unsettled,” he added. Fai said the time had come for the talks to be tripartite, because the dispute primarily involved three parties: India, Pakistan, and the people of Kashmir, while the people being the primary and principal party.US influence: Fai said Kosovo had become a reality through the support, understanding and engagement of the United States. “The emergence of Kosovo as the world’s 193rd independent country has knocked out the misperception that in a post-9/11 world, the international community does not support freedom struggles.” He said there were two principles involved in the Kashmir dispute. “First, it is the inherent right of the people of the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir to decide their future according to their will. Two, it is impossible to ascertain their will, except through a vote under impartial supervision in conditions that are free from compulsion, intimidation and external coercion.” He urged the United States to assume the same role in the settlement of the Kashmir dispute that it chose for itself in the late 1940s and 1950s at the United Nations and elsewhere. He noted that on February 22, 2006, President Bush had declared that the United States supported a solution to Kashmir issue acceptable not only to India and Pakistan, but also to the people of Kashmir. khalid hasan

Musharraf had diluted Kashmir issue: Geelani

SRINAGAR: With no clear majority to any political party in Pakistan, leaders as well as people in Kashmir believe that the process to find an amicable solution to the Kashmir problem may be delayed further. Though separatists believe that there will not be any change vis-a-vis Kashmir, mainstream parties fear that the clock may turn back.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani is, however, the lone leader who sees it as a defeat to Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf and his Kashmir policy. “People of Pakistan have rejected Musharraf and his apologetic Kashmir policy. Election results should serve as an eye-opener for those who will form the new government in Pakistan.” Mr. Geelani told The Hindu over phone from Delhi that Gen. Musharraf had diluted the Kashmir issue and his defeat was a result of his pro-U.S. policies. “Let us hope the new government would not follow the footsteps of Musharraf and sticks to its traditional stand on Kashmir.”
Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah said there was hardly any possibility for any government in Pakistan to change its Kashmir policy. “History stands testimony to the fact that till date whosoever has ruled Pakistan has always supported the Kashmir cause. All the Pakistani leaders have always raised Kashmir issue in every forum. The ongoing Indo-Pak dialogue started due to the efforts of Pakistan. I don’t think that there will be any change in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy,” he said.
Mohammad Yasin Malik, chairman of pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front said: “I congratulate the people of Pakistan for exercising their right to vote. But the split verdict is a cause of concern for the political parties in Pakistan. We have to see how the political parties in Pakistan will develop consensus to form a new government. It is an acid test for the Pakistani leaders.” Referring to the Kashmir issue, Mr. Malik said that talks vis-À-vis Kashmir might get delayed till new government is formed. “Let us see what happens.” “Good beginning”
People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said that the elections were a good beginning towards restoration of democracy in Pakistan. “It seems that for the first time free and fair elections were held, and, in spite of violence the people came out to vote. We relate it to the situation in Kashmir,” she said.
Ms. Mufti said the peace process had come to a halt and “we now hope that new government though having its own priorities will pick up the thread from the initiatives taken by Parvez Musharraf.” She hailed Musharraf for his pragmatic and realistic approach vis-a-vis Kashmir. “He has a significant contribution in pushing forward the process of reconciliation and peace” she said.
Senior National Conference (NC) leader Ali Muhammad Sagar said: “The new government in Pakistan can have a different Kashmir policy and for the time being it seems that the dialogue process between India and Pakistan would get delayed further. The party backed by Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf, PML (Q), getting the lowest number of seats has weakened Musharraf.”
“I could see a breakthrough in the political impasse in the country that cropped up since the 9/11 attacks in America,” said Muhammad Rafiq, a shopkeeper.
He said the polls were free and fair and could begin an era of permanent peace in the area. It would also help speed up peace talks between India and Pakistan.”
Another shop-owner Najam-ud-din was jubilant and said, “I am happy to see pro-Musharraf parties losing,” adding, “Musharraf was a U.S. puppet, he was anti-Islamic and the parties supporting him paid for it.” But there are students like Masood Ahmad who is dismayed over the results. “Now the corrupt people are back in power, they will not do well to their own country nor to Kashmir.”

Kashmir