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Kashmir : Beg welcomes Zardari’s statement, separatists unhappy

	March 10, 2008

The Congress-PDP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir has welcomed Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asaf Ali Zar¬dari’s statement that India-Pakistan relations cannot be held hostage to the Kashmir issue. Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussein Beg who belongs to the PDP said that his party has always been in favour of dialogue to resolve all issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing a public meeting in Baramulla district, Beg said a stable Pakistan is the key to peace and progress in the sub-continent.



The Deputy Chief Minister said, it is time to demolish the walls of hatred and create a conducive atmosphere for strengthen¬ing relations between the two countries.



Pradesh Congress senior vice president Abdul Ghani Vakil expressed the hope that the emerging democratic set up in Pakis¬tan would focus on strengthening confidence building measures.



The opposition National Conference, reacting to Zardari’s statement, said that the importance of resolution of the Kashmir issue has gathered momentum after Pakistan’s ‘rulers-in-waiting’ opened their cards. A spokesman of the National Conference said that the party has been demanding restoration of pre-1953 autono¬my.



Separatist leaders, however, described Zardari’s statement as an attempt to dilute the importance of the need to resolve the Kashmir issue. Hurriyat Conference leader Shabir Ahmed Shah, terming Zardari’s statement as “irrelevant”, said that the Kashmir movement can go on even if Pakistan withdraws its sup¬port. Chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani said, Zardari’s statement is not going to affect the Kashmir cause. JKLF chairman Mohd. Yasin Malik said that he supported India-Pakistan friendship, but added that the two countries cannot do so by what he called “suppressing the Kashmir dispute.”





Democratic Pakistan will improve relations with India : Asma Jahangir



Pakistan’s National Human Rights Commission Chairperson Asma Jahangir, who was on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir as special rapporteur of the UN for Freedom of Religions and Be¬liefs, said in Jammu on March 6, that a democratic Pakistan will help in improving relations with India. She was also in favour of everybody being allowed the freedom to exercise his or her franchise.



Without wanting to comment on whether the secessionists in the Kashmir valley should participate in elections or not, she remarked, in a democracy, right to vote was a basic right and nobody should deny it.



“Preventing people from casting their vote by force or any other means amounts to violation of human rights,” she remarked.



Jahangir refused her comment on Asif Ali Zardari’s sugges¬tion that Kashmir should be shelved for the time being.



The noted human rights activist was all praise for Indian democracy, which she said, had firmed up its roots deep in the soil. She also had special praise for the secular character of Indian democracy.



On the return of democracy in Pakistan, she said, it was a healthy development for the country and its positive impact would also be felt on Indo-Pak relations.





Al Badr ultras killed



The Police along with the Army killed two militants belong¬ing to the Al Bard terrorist outfit in Budgam. One of the slain militants hailed from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Budgam police said they were hiding in the house of a widow of a slain Hizbul Mujahideen militant and the forces surrounded them after a tip off.





Pandits get a colony in the Valley



The state government on Monday, March 3, handed over 31 residential flats in Budgam to Kashmiri Pandits who had stayed in the valley despite the ongoing turmoil. This is reported to be the first exclusive Kashmiri Pandits’ colony in the valley.



The Pandits belonging to 14 hamlets of Budgam district were living in a cluster of dilapidated houses. The authorities assembled them in Budgam in 1998 for security following a massa¬cre in nearby Sangrampora village.



The state government embarked on a multi-crore project in 2003 to construct residential clusters in Kashmir to woo the displaced Pandits to return to the Valley.



The then Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed announced that Pandits would be persuaded in a phased manner to live in clusters at Sheikhpora in Budgam, Khubhawani in Ganderbal, Mattan in south Kashmir and Shivpora in Srinagar. Initially, around 300 fa¬milies were willing to return, but none of them actually did so despite construction of flats in the Valley.



A senior Pandit Bhushan Lal said that the Kashmir govern¬ment was never serious about the return of Pandits. He said the allotment of flats to Pandits already living in the Valley is not an achievement of the Government, but a failure. “The flats were meant for those Pandits who left the Valley in 1990. Unfortunately none of them has shifted to these hearths,” he lamented.







Mughal Road to be thrown open next year



Exactly another year, and the alternate road to Kashmir will be open to traffic. The Mughal Road will be opened to one-way traffic from this June itself.



The seventy-five kilometre double-laned road which connects Shopian with Bafliaz in Poonch will be the shortest possible link between Srinagar and the rest of the country. So far nearly Rs 123 crore has been spent on the project, and the remaining 22 km is expected to be over by March next year.



The prestigious project , that was to be completed by 2007, got delayed due to several financial and administrative reasons. Wildlife conservationists opposed the road, that runs through the Heerpura wildlife sanctuary.



Although the project was conceived in 1980, the onset of militancy in the Valley had stalled work which was resumed in October 2005.



This alternate highway between Srinagar and the rest of the country will support greater inter-regional and economic and cultural exchanges between Jammu and Srinagar. It will end the geographical isolation of many areas and will help make strong the economy of the regions of Rajouri and Poonch districts, which do not have any direct contact with Kashmir.