Let's sit across the table on Kashmir: Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, OCT. 7. Pakistan's Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has said India should refrain from `provocative' actions and agree to sit across the table with Islamabad for a resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

Speaking at an official meeting, Gen. Musharraf alleged that India was trying to impose a military solution.

It is for the first time since his return from a trip to New York in September that Gen. Musharraf has spoken stridently on the Kashmir imbroglio vis-a-vis India, perhaps in a build-up for the first anniversary of the military rule on October 12.

Gen. Musharraf repeated the well known position of diplomatic, political and moral support to the Kashmiris' struggle for the right to self-determination.

``India would not succeed in its nefarious designs to drive a wedge between Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership. Pakistan is a party to the Kashmir dispute and a durable solution to the festering dispute could be achieved only with the full participation of Pakistan in any dialogue in future,'' he asserted.

Gen. Musharraf said the `Kashmiris' were forced to take to armed struggle as India refused to concede their ``just demand''.

The military ruler claimed that both India and Pakistan had committed themselves to the implementation of the 1948-49 U.N. Security Council resolutions envisaging a plebiscite. ``The right of the Kashmiris to decide their own future has not lapsed with the passage of time''.

In another development, the Hizbul Mujahideen chief, Syed Salhuddin, has urged India to take note of the observations made by its new army chief on the need for a political solution to the Kashmir dispute and take concrete steps for a resolution.

In a statement here, Syed Salahuddin claimed that the new Army Chief had virtually conceded `defeat in crushing the freedom struggle' in Kashmir and urged India to read the writing on the wall.

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Section  : International
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