India using dialogue as ‘weapon’ to diffuse Kashmir Issue: Shabir Shah
Pakistan Times Kashmir Desk

SRINAGAR (IHK): Accusing the Indian government of using “dialogue as a weapon” to diffuse international pressure on it to resolve the Kashmir dispute, senior Kashmiri leader Shabir Shah today dismissed the upcoming round table conference called by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a futile exercise.

“The government of India is not serious about resolving the Kashmir issue. It is using dialogue as a weapon to diffuse international pressure on it,” the Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah told a gathering at Anantnag district in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Kashmir was a political issue and “needed a political solution, which lay in the UN resolutions. If India showed flexibility, a breakthrough could be achieved. We want a permanent solution to the issue acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir”, he said, according to a news report.

Shah further said starting trade between the two parts of Kashmir and people-to-people contact could be a confidence building measure but not a solution to the Kashmir issue.

“There is no let up in bloodshed and destruction of properties... As such what purpose will the roundtable serve,” the DFP leader maintained.●