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Pakistan upset at use of force

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday broke its silence on the recent developments in the Kashmir Valley to express “deep regret” at the use of force against demonstrators in Srinagar.

Making a specific reference to Friday’s incident in which Hurriyat Conference leader Shabir Shah and a few others sustained injuries, the Foreign Ministry said it was also concerned “over recent instances of human rights violations” in Kashmir.

However, the statement, which the Foreign Ministry said was in response to a query, made no mention of the controversial J&K government decision to allot land to the Amarnath temple and its subsequent reversal.

The brief statement said there was a “need to create an enabling environment for the success of [the] peace process between Pakistan and India and the resolution of [the] Kashmir dispute.”

The statement comes days after hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani accused Pakistan of ignoring, and the Pakistani media of “blacking out” the protests in the Valley. He said Kashmiris did not need Pakistan anymore, and would launch a “peaceful” and indigenous struggle for their rights.

Although mainstream electronic and print media in Pakistan have given coverage to the developments of the last two weeks in J&K, the anger in the Valley at the J&K government’s decision has found little resonance here.

A Jamat-i-Islami call for a show of solidarity with Kashmiris on Friday evoked no response in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In Pakistan too, the call went unnoticed.

A rally attended by less than 300 people in Muzaffarabad on July 2 was about the only show of support for protesting Kashmiris, and it was organised not by a political party but an NGO called Hope.

Significantly, not a single PoK politician has yet made any public statement on the controversy. When The Hindu asked PoK Prime Minister Sardar Attiq Khan about Mr. Geelani’s comments, he said he “personally spoke to several Kashmiri leaders” in the Valley to express his solidarity with them, and where this was not possible, he had asked others to be in contact.

Expressing “deep regret” at the events across the LoC, Mr. Attiq Khan said he had been preoccupied with a family bereavement, but would soon make a call for a rally in PoK in support of Kashmiris.

Surprisingly, even the daily Nation, and its sister publication, the Urdu daily Nawai Waqt, both fierce advocates of the “Kashmir is Pakistan’s jugular vein” thesis, have made no editorial comment.

Javed Siddiq, resident editor of the Nawai-Waqt put down the absence of interest in Pakistan to happenings in Kashmir to a preoccupation with the country’s continuing political crisis.

“It is not that our feelings for Kashmir have changed. But right now, everyone here is worried about where Pakistan is headed under this coalition, about the high prices of food and fuel, and about what the Americans are doing here,” said Mr. Siddiq.

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