Hurriyat Conference has been giving preference to efforts for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir conflict but the latest remarks of its leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani are reflective of its utter frustration due to Narendra Modi’s berserk moves in Occupied Kashmir. In a statement, he said since India has unilaterally ended all bilateral agreements, Pakistan should also announce a withdrawal from all aspects of the Tashkent, Simla and Lahore agreements and also re-designate the Line of Control (LoC) as ‘Ceasefire Line’.
The veteran Kashmiri leader has always demonstrated rational thinking and approach and his latest analysis of the situation is not without reason. As pointed out by him, India’s announcement on the 5th of August 2019, to forcibly annex the territory of Jammu and Kashmir(Occupied) and break up the state is an attempt to physically change its internationally accepted disputed status. This unilateral action is not just violation of the UN resolutions that guarantee right of self-determination to Kashmiris but also negation of all bilateral agreements under which India pledged to engage into bilateral talks to resolve the dispute peacefully. These agreements now have no meaning as far as India is concerned as it has already annexed the disputed territory and there are remote chances of New Delhi engaging into any substantive discussions with Pakistan or Kashmiris for a just solution of the issue. In the past the bogey of bilateral dialogue was used by India to hoodwink the international community about possibility of peaceful resolution of the conflict but now that it has formally annexed the disputed region it is unlikely to even consider inclusion of such issues on the agenda of talks describing it as internal matter of India. Pakistani policy and decision makers should seriously analyse the proposal of Ali Geelani and act as per dictates of the time.
