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| Monday, 21 July 2003 |
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Peace winds blowing in Indian Kashmir NEW DELHI, Sunday (AFP) Indian Kashmir's governor S.K. Sinha said that peace in the strife-torn region was becoming more likely with moderate leadership taking over Kashmir's main separatists alliance. "The winds of change are blowing in the state. The moderates have taken over the Hurriyat Conference. Though we cannot be over-optimistic, things are much better than before," Sinha was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India. Moulvi Abbas Ansari, the 65-year-old head of the Ithadul Muslimeen separatist group, earlier this month became the first Shiite Muslim to lead the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir's main separatist alliance. After taking over, Ansari recently said India, Pakistan and representatives of the Kashmiri people could end the bitter ownership dispute over the region without the help of other countries such as the United States. Previous Hurriyat leaders have urged for US mediation, but Ansari said it would show that India and Pakistan were "impotent" and unable to resolve their issues. Sinha also said the statements made by a visiting leader of Pakistan's radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Islamic party that Islamabad and New Delhi could resolve the Kashmir issue on their own showed greater desire for peace. "We also have to take note of the visit of the founder of Taliban (Jamiat-Ulema Islam Chief Fazal-ur Rahman) and his statements regarding resolution of Kashmir issue through talks," he said. "This reflects the change that is taking place." The call from JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was a reversal of the hardline party's previous stand that there was little scope for bilateral negotiations over Kashmir between the two South Asian nuclear rivals. JUI has in the past called for third-party mediation in the dispute, which led to two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947, without naming a preferred arbitrator. But he added that incidents of violence were still continuing and on an average 10 people were being killed daily, including security personnel, civilians and militants. Meanwhile six people were killed and 20 others injured in separate explosions and shoot-outs and overnight in restive Indian-administered Kashmir, a police spokesman said. A Muslim who formerly served in the Indian army, Bashir Ahmed, was killed in a bomb explosion in the village of Nag Batra in southern Doda district on Saturday, he said. |
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