Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 25: Expressing his happiness over the opening of Kartarpur corridor between India and Pakistan for Sikh pilgrims, Member Parliament and former J&K Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah today said that such initiates are needed to be taken in Jammu and Kashmir also.
In a press statement here, the National Conference president, who represents Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency said that the initiative will help Sikh community to realise their long pending demand of paying obeisance at one of their holy places located across the border.
“The invitation from Pakistan to Indian leaders and legislators on the opening ceremony of Kartarpur corridor will bequeath both India and Pakistan a chance to further the cause of brotherhood and amity. The initiative will help the people from across the border to get wind of cultural similarities between the two nations,” he said.
Farooq said that the J&K State also needs such initiatives as opening of borders and greater people to people contact across the border. “We in Jammu and Kashmir suffer immensely due to the animosity between India and Pakistan. The need of the hour calls for replicating such initiatives as opening of Kartarpur corridor in our State,” Dr Abdullah said.
He said that National Conference for the past 70 years has been vouching for affable indo-Pak relations.
“We in National Conference have persistently maintained that Indo-Pak bonhomie will usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in our peace craving state. We have had four wars since 1947. And we weren’t able to achieve anything except destruction. I have time and again said that constituency of peace loving people in the two nations far exceeds those who want war. Peace loving people across the border should impress upon their respective Governments to bridge the divide and rekindle the process of interaction between the two countries which was initiated by Late Vajpayee Ji and then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and later by PM Manmohan Singh and his counterpart in Pakistan,” Farooq said.
While welcoming the Brigade Commander level meeting between India and Pakistan at a border crossing point in Poonch sector, Farooq said that such initiatives will bump up the confidence building measures and help the people across the LoC to live in peace.
He said National Conference has been a strong votary of 2003 ceasefire agreement. The meeting ended with both sides assuring to adhere to norms of 2003 cease fire. ” I wish this step towards rapprochement acts as a precursor to more such friendly gestures,” Farooq maintained.
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