Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 25: All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman and Kashmir Chief Cleric, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, today expressed his willingness to engage with the current government in New Delhi for conflict resolution.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks at the BRICS summit where he spoke about dialogue and diplomacy as the means for settling conflicts and not war, Mirwaiz said that Hurriyat talked to Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh and Parvez Musharraf and is always ready to engage with the current dispensation in New Delhi.
While addressing the Friday congregation at Srinagar’s historic Jamia mosque, Mirwaiz recalled that when APHC was formed by the leadership in 1993, the situation was entirely different with militancy at its peak.
“Even at that time, APHC in its proclamation clearly stated that it advocates a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir conflict by engagement, and even after thirty years this outlook remains the same,” he said.
Mirwaiz said the recent killing in Gagangir is very shocking and disturbing and now the killing is in the high-security area of Gulmarg.
He said these are very serious matters that can escalate and should be investigated.
Giving details about his recent meeting with Hurriyat leaders, Mirwaiz said that since August 2019 during which he was mostly under house arrest, he got to meet his colleagues Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone, and Masroor Ansari together for the first time after more than five years.
He said that it was very emotional.
They remembered their colleagues who passed away during this time and leaders languishing in jails.
“We also shared our reflections on the changed situation of the past five years within J&K and the effects of rapidly changing geo-political scenario, on it,” he said.
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