Ruling out any solution from 'outside' to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, United States President Barack Obama on Sunday underlined that disputes between India and Pakistan can only be resolved by the two countries themselves.
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.
"We cannot take people on board who believe in confrontation and who think that only militancy solves the problem. They cannot be taken on board, they will remain opposed to whatever we do.
The prime minister will arrive in Islamabad on Saturday to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit.
India and Pakistan got into a verbal exchange at the Security Council on the relevance of the United Nations observer group at Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, with India stressing the force's role has been overtaken by subsequent agreements signed by the two nations under which they resolved to settle differences "through bilateral negotiations".
Pakistan's Kashmir Committee chairman Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan said He claimed that Pakistan's case on Kashmir was "strong enough."
According to the cable, Sattar reacted positively to the idea of involving Kashmiris.
"We intend to talk to individuals and groups who want peace and normalcy in Kashmir Valley," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said before the departure of delegation comprising 30 members from 20 parties.
She also sought confidence building measures to be undertaken on the lines of those initiated in 2002.
In an unexpected shift of strategy, Pakistan occupied Kashmir's Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has asked the Yusuf Raza Gilani-led Pakistan government not to link the controversial Kashmir issue with the renewed deliberations with India.Haider said that instead of linking the resolution of Kashmir issue with the ongoing negotiations with India, the government should first try to resolve other 'small irritants'.
"He (Modi) has created an environment in Jammu and Kashmir of hatred and anger, and the only people who benefit from violence and hatred are the Pakistanis," the Congress vice president said.
Immediately after Modi delivered his speech, Omar merely tweeted "finally" but, in a subsequent tweet, voiced his disagreement with Modi's view.
'There is a problem with the rise of a popular view that sees Kashmir through the prism of the larger, chronic Hindu-Muslim tensions.' 'By redefining the Kashmir problem simplistically in Hindu-Muslim terms could end up keeping Kashmir but losing most Kashmiris,' says Shekhar Gupta.
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.
In the letter, Sharif asserted that Pakistan will continue its moral and political support to the people of Kashmir in their struggle for right to self-determination.
On his first visit to Kashmir as President, Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said no problems are ever resolved by violence and the healing process must be nurtured with love, compassion and patience while important issues need speedy resolution.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favorite 2023 films -- a healthy blend of Bollywood, Hindi indies and some of the best work that is being done in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali cinema.
Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif claimed on Monday that there was a major breakthrough to resolve the Kashmir issue with India during his premiership but the gains were "turned upside down" by the subsequent military regime of Pervez Musharraf.
'I'm very much against petrol and diesel....'' 'I travel in an electric car.' 'I have had a really good experience with it.'
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continues his exhortation for US mediation in Kashmir, and harks back to his meeting with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when the latter had agreed to a resolution of Kashmir imbroglio; senior us officials assert there is 'absolutely no change in us policy' that Kashmir has to be resolved bilaterally. Aziz Haniffa reports.
Before the advent of militancy 15 years ago, Kashmir was popular with film-makers and tourists, but the violence that has now claimed more than 40,000 lives has damaged both industries.
'Let people across the LoC see the resolve of Bharat and the contribution of the Indian Security Forces in rebuilding the Valley. Let disaster become the rallying point for integration -- not only of society but also of all the instruments of State,' says General Anil Chait (retd).
Kashmiri Pandit employees on Monday threatened to appeal to international human rights organisations for asylum if the central government failed to relocate them from the Valley in the wake of attacks on minorities.
US President Barack Obama is unlikely to rake up the issue of Kashmir during his visit to India, a senior American official in New Delhi indicated. The US has reiterated that Kashmir is a bilateral issue to be resolved between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Pakistan on Thursday accused India of adopting an 'untenable, illegal and amoral' position on the issue of Kashmir and said New Delhi should come forward for meaningful and result-oriented talks aimed at resolving the decades-old issue.
Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League and hard-line religious parties joined a rally in Islamabad organised by a front of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah, during which speakers called for a jihad to resolve the Kashmir issue. PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Samiul Haq and representatives of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference joined the rally organised by the Tehrik Azadi-e-Kashmir.
'It will be foolhardy to overlook that this stunning shift in China's stance comes as the culmination of the severely damaged India-China relationship under the present government,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Saeed, who plans to hold funeral prayers in absentia for Wani and others on Friday in Lahore, said issues in Kashmir should be resolved as per the wish of Kashmiri people.
He emphasised that if any life is lost in Kashmir, whether of any youth or any security personnel, 'that loss is ours, of our own country'.
"Each violation of any kind must be responded to with full force in the most effective manner," he said during a visit to the 10 Corps Rawalpindi and troops at forward locations along the Line of Control.
India and Pakistan made "considerable progress" on resolving the Kashmir issue between 2004 and 2007 and considered several options, including demilitarisation and granting autonomy to the area, Pakistan's former army chief said on Wednesday.
He dismissed reports that India and Pakistan agreed to a dialogue process due to pressure from the international community.
Women in Kashmir, whose husbands went missing during the over two-decade long militancy, can remarry if their spouses remained untraced for four years, a group of prominent Muslim scholars in the Valley have held.
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Notwithstanding India's objections to China-assisted developmental projects in PoK, Pakistan asserted it will go ahead with its plans there, including the multi-billion dollar Sino-Pak economic corridor.
'If we don't resolve it by then, maybe we never will,' the Pakistan president told the Financial Times.
While the government interlocutor for J&K may be tasked with holding talks with 'all stakeholders', the central government is singing a very different tune in the Supreme Court, Aditi Phadnis points out.
The US has said its policy on the Kashmir issue that it should be resolved bilaterally remains unchanged, days after Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani sought its support in the settlement of the problem with India.
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