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Dalai Lama Calls for Self-Rule in Kashmir
CHENNAI, India, Aug 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - On Sunday, the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled religious leader, called on both India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue by giving Kashmiris the right to self-rule.
The Dalai Lama was speaking in the southern Indian city of Chennai after inaugurating the South Asia Peace Conference. He said the two neighboring countries could explore the possibilities of following the middle path embraced by the exiled Tibetans.
He had recently announced that the Tibetans would end their struggle for an independent homeland if they were given genuine self-rule by China.
Regarding the mid-July peace summit between India and Pakistan held at Agra, he said that although nothing of significance had come out of it, the talks had at least opened the door for negotiating peace between the two nations and in Jammu and Kashmir.
He also lent his support to the appeal of the pro-independence All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Kashmir's main separatist alliance, which has voiced concerns that the APHC should also be involved in the talks on the Kashmir issue. The people's inclusion in the talks could influence its outcome, he said.
"Though I have no association with the Kashmir issue, yet I feel that it is my moral duty to comment on it," he said. "I feel that it (the middle-path approach) should not be ignored without a try."
Despite the Dalai Lama's last claim, there are around 100,000 followers of Tibetan Buddhism in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, and they have emerged as India's most effective fighting force along the Line of Control (LoC) that separates the Indian and Pakistani sections of Kashmir.
Nevertheless, APHC leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who also attended the peace conference, said that his organization invited the Dalai Lama to Kashmir to increase his understanding of the problems faced by the people there.
He added that the Dalai Lama has invited the APHC leadership to visit his headquarters in exile in Dharamshala.
Speaking at the conference, Farooq said that a solution to the unrest in the Kashmir valley could only be found if the people were involved in the negotiations. He said that nothing had come out of talks held between India and Pakistan in Shimla, Tashkent and Lahore and demanded that the APHC should be made part of any talks.
According to the Indian government's official estimates, 36,000 people have died since Indian started a harsh military crackdown on the Kashmiri independence movement, which began in the 1980's; but according to pro-freedom sources, the toll is nearly twice as high at 70,000.
Since New Delhi withdrew a six-month unilateral ceasefire May 30, Indian troops have killed 450 Muslim separatists - 990 in all since January - and 90 security personnel, the state administration said in Srinagar on Monday. Activists killed 527 civilians between January and July this year.
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is divided between the two of them but claimed by both.
Pakistan denies Indian charges that it is behind the "cross-border terrorism" but supports the Kashmiris' struggle for self-determination.
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