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Former PoK Prime Minister's appeal to separatists

Special Correspondent

Boycotting talks never resolves issues, he says

Abdul Qayyum

NEW DELHI: The former Prime Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, on Saturday appealed to all Kashmir leaders and groups in India to take part in talks and conferences being organised by the Government to discuss important issues. Boycotting such occasions never resolved problems.

"They [Kashmiri leaders] should take part in the talks whoever is the organiser. Unless they sit across the table and discuss things, how can the problems be solved? Meetings and talks should not be given up," he said delivering a lecture at the Observer Research Foundation on the Kashmir issue. Mr. Qayyum was replying to a question on the boycott of the round table by the Hurriyat leaders this week.

Mr. Qayyum also sought "safe passage" from the Indian Government for foreign militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir, saying they would be accepted there. "If they [militants] get the safe passage, they might return home [PoK]. We are ready to accept them. Instead of keeping the irritant here, it is better they are moved to this side [PoK]," he said.

Defending the Lashkar-e-Toiba militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir, he said all their camps had been dismantled in PoK. "I can categorically say that there are no terrorist camps in operation now. But there may be some persons as they cannot disappear," he said.

He blamed the "inhuman and senseless" restrictions for poor occupancy of the Srinagar-Muzaffarbad bus. "The problem is an unbelievable security process that is irrational and idiotic. It has no sense, a totally senseless security system. It takes a lifetime to fill that form, if you have seen that form," he said, adding that the 1955 system of District Magistrate granting travel permit was much simpler.

Referring to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's proposals for restoring peace in Kashmir and the confidence-building measures (CBMs), Mr. Qayyum defended India, saying it would be wrong on the part of hardliners on the Pakistani side to say that India had not moved forward. "I think India has responded quite adequately. But the problem with India and Pakistan is that if one party suggests something, the other rejects it thinking [accepting] it is a defeat. I have positive views about this. ," he added.

The former Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Girish Saxena, raised the issue of perceived differences over democracy on both sides, and also militant camps in PoK. The former Foreign Secretary, M. Rasgotra, hoped that increased people-to-people contacts would ultimately lead to making the border between the two countries irrelevant.

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