Srinagar: Veteran Kashmiri leader and Chairman Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmed Shah has appealed to the international community to play its much needed role to help resolve the Kashmir dispute to avoid potential nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan in future.
In his message from Tihar jail, Shabir Ahmed Shah said that the recent India-Pakistan standoff has raised serious concerns about the possibility of a nuclear war, with both countries possessing nuclear capabilities. Shabir Ahmed Shah appreciated the world leaders especially president Trump for his unprecedented role in diffusing the recent crisis that could have jeopardized peace in the region and even led to a wider conflict. He also praised the Pakistani political and military leadership for exercising maximum constraint, which he said had been instrumental in preventing the situation from spiraling into full-scale war.
Shabir Ahmed Shah while welcoming the president Trump's mediation offer to resolve the longstanding Kashmir issue, he said, after the failure of bilateralism an effective third party median has become imperative to bring about a permanent solution of the decade's' long dispute, which remains a potential flashpoint for conflict between the two nuclear armed neighbours.
'While both India and Pakistan have engaged in bilateral talks, these talks have often resulted in diplomatic stalemates', he said, adding that the leadership across the political spectrum in Kashmir have time and again emphasized the need for third-party mediation, arguing that bilateral negotiations alone are insufficient to resolve the issue.
Highlighting the dangerous dimensions of the Kashmir dispute, he said despite the passage of over seven decades the dispute hangs like the sword of Damocles over the two nations.
'The conflict, which has now assumed alarming proportions, continues to threaten peace and stability of the entire South Asian region', Shabir Ahmed Shah said, adding that countless efforts aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the dispute at bilateral level have been made but things have only gone from bad to worse.
'Sadly, India has always played a double game hampering every effort aimed at finding a peaceful settlement of the dispute in line with the UNSC resolution-once hailed as a perfect guiding template for the resolution of the issue', Shabir Ahmed Shah added.
Rather than making a genuine effort to resolve the Kashmir dispute, Shabir Ahmed Shah emphasized that India has always created hurdles in the way of a peaceful solution of the dispute by weaving cobwebs of confusion around it.
'At the international level, New Delhi presents Kashmir as a bilateral issue to prevent the internationalization of the dispute, while during bilateral engagements, it shamelessly terms it as its internal problem', he mentioned.
'Under the given scenario, the initiation of a formal mediation process involving a neutral third party remains the only viable option to hammer out a permanent solution of the Kashmir dispute', he maintained.
Shabir Ahmed Shah, however, maintained that inclusion of Kashmiri leadership in any decision making process in the future was essentially important to ensure that the rights and interests of the Kashmiri people were duly represented.
He said that it was high time for India to realize that it cannot keep Kashmiris hostage for a long time or deter them through its sledgehammer policies. Shah said that let it be clear that Kashmiris, in their demand for self-determination, do not seek concessions but rather the implementation of existing United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, which call for holding a referendum in the region to allow its people to determine their political future.
He also urged the Indian government to shun its policy of intransigence and seize the moment and initiate a result-oriented dialogue on the Kashmir issue to avert any future conflict.
'War is no longer an option since both the countries are nuclear weapon states', Shah said, adding that dialogue remains the only civilized way to address all disputes including the core issue of Kashmir.