The Hindu : National : Mirwaiz calls it a seminar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 27, 2006

National

National

Mirwaiz calls it a seminar

Shujaat Bukhari

Condemns attack on tourists

SRINAGAR: Head of the moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday dismissed the recent round-table conference on Kashmir as a "seminar."

Unless the leaders from across the Line of Control meet and agree, no solution to the problem would be durable and acceptable.

He also condemned the attack on tourists on Thursday.The attackers were not Kashmiris, he said.

Not an internal issue

The Mirwaiz told a congregation at the Jamia Masjid that Kashmir was not an internal issue and autonomy and self-rule were not the solution to the problem.

"Leaders from across the LoC and the governments of India and Pakistan should be involved in talks and hammer out a solution and only that will be acceptable. Bilateral agreements between New Delhi and Srinagar in the past have failed."

`Round table failed'

He said the round table chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had failed. "We had some apprehensions about the round-table conference and the apprehensions came true. This conference was like a seminar and failed to yield any results."

On the attack on tourists, he said: "The attackers were not Kashmiris and have nothing to do with the people of Kashmir." He demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has said that militants would continue their battle. "No other solution is acceptable to us," United Jihad Council chairman Syed Salahuddin said in a statement published in a local daily here. "Militants will continue their struggle until they get freedom from India. Independence is our right and we will get it."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail