Shabir Ahmed Shah terms Modi’s remarks regarding Kashmir as unrealistic
SRINAGAR, June 24 (SABAH): Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmed Shah, while terming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks regarding Jammu and Kashmir as unrealistic, has said that peace in the subcontinent was inescapably linked to settlement of Kashmir dispute in line with the UNSC resolutions.
In his message from Tihar jail, the incarcerated leader, said that Modi’s third term in the office as prime minister of India presents him a unique opportunity to resolve age-old disputes and ease tension in South Asia.
Urging prime minister Modi to cease this golden opportunity, Shabir Ahmed Shah said that it was high time that the incumbent government should revisit its Kashmir policy and adopt a pragmatic approach to find out a peaceful solution to the Kashmir conflict that has been the main cause and consequence of unrest in the region.
Rather than fomenting trouble in its neighborhood, Shah said that India must shun its hegemonic policy to ensure peace and stability in the subcontinent.
Commenting on Modi’s speech he delivered during his recent visit in Kashmir, Shah, said that the Indian Prime Minister’s attitude towards Jammu and Kashmir was unrealistic. He said that India must realize the reality that it cannot subdue Kashmiris by the dint of force.
Referring to the Indian premier’s speech, he said that Modi’s mantra of peace and development in Kashmir was nothing but a fig leaf to cover its barbarism and brutality, loot and plunder of state resources.
Terming the contents of the Indian Prime Minister’s speech as far from the facts, Shah said, ” Had the people of Jammu and Kashmir taken such things seriously, hundreds of thousands of young and old Kashmiris might not have embraced martyrdom nor would have they been suffering in prisons today”.
Terming freedom from India’s illegal occupation as the only way forward, Shah said that Kashmiris have burnt down their boats. Kashmiris, he said, have never accepted the India’s illegal control over their motherland.
Shabir Ahmed Shah said that Kashmiris’ have been demanding their legitimate right, the right to self determination guaranteed to them by the international community. “No concessions or economic packages offered to the Kashmiri people by the Indian government offer a solution to the lingering dispute”, he said, adding that Kashmiris have rejected these empty assurances and hollow slogans of the Indian government in the past and would reject them in future.
He made it clear elections being conducted under the shadow of guns have no legitimacy. “Elections are not a substitute to Kashmiris’ right to self determination”, he said, adding that the Kashmiri people have every right to decide their political future.
Terming cordial relationship between India and Pakistan was key to development and peace in the region, Shabbir Ahmed Shah said that a just and peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue would open new vistas of peace, progress and development in the south Asian region.