Both the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti and Opposition National Conference (NC) working president Omar Abdullah on Monday called for “sustained” and “uninterrupted” talks between India and Pakistan.
“There is a need to insulate the dialogue process from the elements who will try to derail it. I am sure there will be attempts at it,” said Mr.Abdullah in Srinagar.
He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reach out to the stakeholders in Srinagar too. “The way Modi Sahib reached out to Pakistan, there is also a need to talk to Srinagar. Both external and internal dimensions of the Kashmir problem need to be addressed,” he said.
Ms.Mehbooba, in a statement issued in Srinagar from New Delhi, expressed hope that the renewed thaw in Indo-Pak ties “would mark a new beginning for peace, stability and prosperity in the region”.
Calling for “uninterrupted and productive engagement” between New Delhi and Islamabad, she said, “We cannot visualise any alternative to reconciliation and dialogue to end the dark era of hostility and confrontation plaguing the sub-continent’s six-decade-long tumultuous history.”
