"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.
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.
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.
'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.
Against the backdrop of a diplomatic storm sparked by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's attempt to link the Kashmir problem to terrorism, Britain on Friday said it was for India and Pakistan to resolve the issue through dialogue, and its not for UK to prescribe a solution.
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.
Singh, who is on a four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, said that a permanent solution to Kashmir issue is based on five 'Cs' -- compassion, communication, coexistence, confidence building and consistency.
The issue of cross border terrorism must be addressed to find a 'pragmatic' solution to the Kashmir issue, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said as leaders from India and Pakistan favoured making the border 'irrelevant' to promote people-to-people contacts and discard the 'mistrust'.
With United States' Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by his side, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday raked up the Kashmir issue and said his country wants a sustained dialogue with India.
Naidu accused Congress of speaking in different voices on strategic matters and also of being "callous" on sensitive issues.
It also lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying "running a nation is not a child's play."
The cases of persons under detention in the state were reviewed and 44 of them were released.
Chairman of the hard-line faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday said he was not against the dialogue process on Kashmir issue but it should be aimed at finding a permanent solution.Geelani's statement came in the wake of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal for dialogue with separatists and other groups for peace in the state."Kashmir is the core issue between the two countries," he said.
Saran has stressed that Bush will be informed of Indo-Pak progress on Kashmir.
'...by stopping its promotion of turmoil, its aid and abetment to militancy.' 'Mr Vajpayee paved the road for peace by engaging Pakistan tirelessly while also reaching out to Kashmiri leaders and people at large.' 'Like so often in the past, this government does not have a policy. No consistency in approach.'
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would raise the Kashmir issue in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, the government said while ruling out resumption of any dialogue with India unless the initiative in this regard is taken by New Delhi.
Kasuri expressed unhappiness over Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta's charge that Pakistan was trying to play down the threat of international terrorism by labelling the Taliban uprising as an ethnic issue.
Pakistan has been insisting on third party mediation on the Kashmir issue, a demand outrightly rejected by India which wants it to be dealt bilaterally. But chairman of the Pakistan People's Party that leads the ruling coalition had said recently that the ties between the two countries should not be held hostage to the Kashmir issue, which should be left for future generations to resolve.
Addressing senior Indian editors at the end of his three-day visit, Musharraf said agreements mean nothing in different environment and different leadership.
The government said it is hopeful of finding a "starting point" in the next few days to reach out to protestors in the Kashmir Valley and resume the dialogue process for a solution. Addressing the two-day conference of chief of police forces, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the central government has acknowledged that a political solution must be found to the problems of J&K.
Upping the ante, Pakistan on Thursday said there can be no result-oriented discussions with India on Kashmir unless New Delhi stops treating it as the country's integral part and seeking a solution within the ambit of the Indian Constitution.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq has reacted sharply to recommendations made by a high-level committee favouring autonomy for the state. "The agenda of Hurriyat has never been autonomy, our agenda is freedom, so we didn't want to give any comment on it," he added."We accept only that solution in which Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir are involved. Any solution between two parties is not acceptable," he said.
If and when this latest crisis moves towards resolution, it's unlikely that the economic solutions will take much precedence, says Sreenivasan Jain.
'The so-called separatists are representatives of Pakistan. They get paid from Islamabad for propagating that country's policy and conniving in her ploy of accession of Kashmir to Pakistan.'
The governor's comments drew sharp reaction from former chief minister and senior Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who said Malik should check his own reputation in Delhi.
Independence or accession to Pakistan is not a viable option for the people of Kashmir, says National Conference chief Omar Abdullah while noting that essentially a political solution needs to be worked out for the ills plaguing Jammu and Kashmir.
Musharraf said the proposals were bold and well considered in the context of finding a solution to the Kashmir issue, which would be acceptable to Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir.
Singh's meeting with Malik comes a week ahead of his talks with a cross-section of political parties and separatists groups from the state.
'It is time India withdraws the complaint from the UN and fully integrates the state of J&K into the Indian Union,' recommends Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The French president said that peace should be maintained in the region and peoples' rights should be protected.
Amit Shah said that his party would not compromise on national interest and could end its alliance with PDP, if the 'Kashmir issue' is not solved.
Efforts to rake up the alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir by backbenchers in the United Kingdom Parliament virtually fell flat as the debate on the issue drew few takers, even as the government asserted that it was for India and Pakistan to resolve the problem bilaterally.
'Tying somebody to the jeep is not the military way, but the officer was able to come out of the situation without any bloodshed.' 'I am not supporting him, but I am also not criticising him.' 'He had to use some mechanism to save the uniformed personnel, many of whom were Kashmiri boys of the J&K police,' points out Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (retd), who was instrumental in the surrender of a record 1,267 terrorists in Kashmir.
To consider Pervez Musharraf a real force for peace is an absurdity, declares Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Kashmir has to be settled in an 'equitable and honourable way acceptable to India, Pakistan and Kashmiris', he said.
Hardening its stance further, India has once again virtually rejected Pakistan's latest invitation for talks on Kashmir.
JNU student leader and activist Shehla Rashid announced her joining of Faesal's party on the occasion.
Mufti said that whatever decision the PM takes, the country will support him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India's economic growth is a 'natural by-product' of his nine-year-old government's political stability, as he expressed optimism that it will be a developed nation by 2047 with 'corruption, casteism and communalism' having no place in our national life.
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