"The way out is through dialogue. Use your friends... Use them for dialogue to resolve the issue," he said.
There are no heroes or villains in No Fathers in Kashmir, but only helpless characters, who perhaps don't have a choice other than learning to live with what they're subjected to, notes Utkarsh Mishra.
The attempt failed as other member countries felt Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
Security expert A S Dulat suggests that a government of reconciliation with Kashmir's mainstream political parties could help begin a dialogue with New Delhi and later the separatists. The Congress needs to let go of the levers of power in the troubled state.
The meeting comes close on the heels of home minister's return from Jammu and Kashmir after wrapping up his two day visit to troubled Kashmir.
Our focus is not on substance, but communicating how we did not shake hands and how we made angry faces. This is what India's foreign policy has become, notes Aakar Patel.
Contrary to expectations, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday did not make a direct offer to the separatists for a dialogue, but said the Central government was working to find a unique and acceptable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir problem.
'The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, as recent events suggest, are quite content as New Delhi's collaborators rather than trying to be true representatives of the Kashmiri people,' says Athar Parvaiz.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that a solution to the Kashmir dispute is critical for better ties between Pakistan and India. He also emphasised that there was a dire need to resolve the issue in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiris. Qureshi further said that the Pakistan government had invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resume the composite dialogue, which was necessary for ensuring peace in the region.
'The relationship between Kashmiri Pandits and Article 370 is vexed.' 'Sentiment in Jammu towards Article 370 was largely unfavourable and Jammu resented being lumped with Kashmir and placed on a different footing from the rest of India.'
Schools in the Valley will reopen next week, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam said.
'While all would agree on the need to be ready to launch cross-border strikes on terror camps, there is sharp disagreement on how best to do it.' 'Through IAF fighters, or surface-to-surface missiles?' 'Or should army Special Forces be created to do the job?' 'If air strikes are the agreed priority, additional funding must be made available for the purchase of fighters and missiles.' 'If it is to be Special Forces, the army must be facilitated in raising a Special Forces Command,' notes Ajai Shukla.
Bidyasagar Behera used to sell newspapers for a living. But that did not stop him from pursuing his education.
Violence and militancy were no solution to "political problems," Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday, as he sought an "honourable, equitable and peaceful resolution" of the Kashmir issue.
'Much as the Palestinian issue remains the core obstacle to peace in the Middle East, the question of Kashmir must be addressed in some meaningful way to bring stability to this region,' he said. He hoped the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan will work towards a 'just and reasonable' solution to the issue.
Dr Abdullah has said his party is open to other suggestions.
The valley is under the iron grip of the armed forces and Pakistan does not have the military power or political support to change the status quo, observes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), after a recent visit to Kashmir.
'Whether it was a habitual expression of post truth or an open offer to India and Pakistan, even Imran Khan could not have believed it,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'The heart of the matter is that India is not Israel.'
Musharraf's proposals included demilitarisation, self rule and joint management of Kashmir.
Terming the report of the Centre's interlocutors as "ambiguous", senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajnath Singh on Monday said any solution to the complex Jammu and Kashmir issue lay within the ambit of the Indian Constitution. "The report of the interlocutors on Kashmir lacks clarity and is ambiguous," the former BJP president said.
Separatists and mainstream Peoples Democratic Party have been dismissive of the report submitted by Kashmir interlocutors to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram Wednesday.
Former R&AW chief A S Dulat, India's foremost expert on the Kashmir issue, argues that the central government should offer Kashmiri separatists a solution in line with the accord signed by Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah in 1975.
'Pakistan had almost disappeared from Kashmir.' 'Now in the last three, four years we have brought Pakistan back again by not handling Kashmir properly.'
General Rawat, who served extensively in Kashmir through his tenure, said the concept of Kashmiryat had to be brought back in the valley.
"The government of India should come up with its roadmap to Kashmir. We would welcome its proposals on the resolution of the long-standing dispute of Kashmir," the Hurriyat chief said.
Tragically, the Congress party is perhaps the only party with the credentials to resolve the Kashmir question. It could have done so in the decade it was in office, and when India was in a position of strength. Now, India seems to be headed for a period of political instability along with an economic downturn. New Delhi's clout is weakening, says Amberish K Diwanji.
The Hizbul Mujahideen chief said he could not back their peace moves or any future Kashmir solution unless hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was taken on board, local media reported.
"Deeply anguished at the loss of precious lives in the incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. I also pray for the speedy recovery of those injured," he said.
Making a fresh demand for a result-oriented dialogue, the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front on Monday demanded setting up of Kashmir committees in India and Pakistan to find an everlasting solution to the Kashmir issue.
Stone-pelting youth were not giving up their lives for tourism but for resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the wishes of its people, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday said.
Those who believe in Kashmiriyat, insaniyat and jamhooriyat are welcome to talk, he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association has put out ads on local TV channels to get in touch with their players from the Valley who have been incommunicado.
Chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, deliberately chose the national day of Kashmir on Monday to protest against the Centre -- for not including the people of the state in finding out an amicable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir problem by holding talks with Pakistan.
Observing that the Barack Obama administration is looking at Pakistan through a different lens than its predecessors, a former American diplomat on Wednesday said that the new United States government would quietly focus itself on Kashmir, away from the public gaze. William Milam, the former US Ambassador to Pakistan, identified Kashmir as one of the issues on which the Obama administration would focus on while trying to find a solution to Pakistan.
"Back channel diplomacy with India is underway to resolve the Kashmir issue. However, we are stressing India should hold tripartite talks (with Pakistan and the Kashmiris). The Kashmiris must be involved in parleys for a peaceful solution to the conflict," Pakistan's Kashmir Affairs Minister Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo said.
Pakistan on Wednesday once again raked up the Kashmir issue in the United Nations when its President Asif Ali Zardari sought a solution to the issue under an UN resolution. He said Kashmir remains a symbol of the failure of the UN system and Pakistan's principled position on territorial disputes remains the bedrock of its foreign policy.
Musharraf noted that "none of us is in favour of their (Kashmir's) independence" and suggested that a "joint framework for self-governance" of the entire Kashmir region should be worked out as part of solution to the problem.
'Kashmir belongs to us all, even if we differ with each other.' 'Statesmanship demands that we sit together and let the left, right and centre of the political spectrum converge on the solution,' says former MP Tarun Vijay.
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