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SRINAGAR (AFP) - A senior Islamist leader on Sunday urged India to resume talks to end the violence in Kashmir, which has left more than 34,000 people dead in the disputed territory since 1989. The appeal to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's BJP party-led government came as the army on Sunday killed five Islamists in a renewed military crackdown following the collapse of a truce here in August. Abdul Gani Lone, a prominent leader of the All Party Freedom Conference - an umbrella forum of anti-Indian movement and regional political groups - urged Vajpayee to open talks to end the bloodshed in Kashmir. Lone said the BJP-led coalition, which accepted an unilateral ceasefire offered in July by the Hizbul Mujahedeen and initiated talks with the frontline opposition group, should engage the Conference in a dialogue. "If the BJP can take the initiative on a dialogue with a militant outfit, in coming times meaningful talks can start with the Conference," said Lone to 5,000 followers of his Kashmir Peoples' Conference regional party. The meeting is the first such political gathering allowed by Indian forces in the last 11 years in Srinigar, the urban hub of the Muslim opposition in Kashmir. "Kashmiri people want an honorable and an ever-lasting solution to the continuing Kashmir issue," said 70-year-old Lone, urging India to invite all regional groups to a "meaningful dialogue." "We say finish this fight once and for all. Pakistan has one-third of Kashmir and no ever-lasting solution can be achieved without their participation," he added. India refuses to invite Pakistan to any peace talks on Kashmir, insisting that Islamabad must first put a halt to its alleged support of Islamic struggle movements in Kashmir. The two South Asian countries have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir. An Indian army spokesperson in the southern Kashmiri city of Jammu, meanwhile, reported the killing of four Muslim fighters in a fierce encounter in the frontier district of Doda on Sunday. The army spokesperson said a fifth suspected Islamist was also gunned down Sunday in the region, which borders Pakistan. |
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