Bilateralism has failed to resolve Kashmir issue: Syed Ali Geelani

SRINAGAR, December 23: Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (Geelani) Syed Ali Shah Geelani has said that bilateral talks between India and Pakistan have failed to resolve Kashmir issue.
“Kashmir is not any border dispute between India and Pakistan which they could mutually solve, but it is the issue of the future of 1.5 crore natives of Jammu and Kashmir and no decision can be imposed upon them,” Geelani said chairing the conglomerate’s Advisory Council meeting (Majlis-e-Shura) at his residence here.
“We are not against the talks, but the bilateral dialogue neither solved the Kashmir issue in the past and nor can it be possible in the future. More than 150 rounds of talks during the last 68 years failed to make any progress,” he said.
Elaborating, he said, “If both the countries continue to follow the same track, then we will not be wrong in saying that the fresh dialogue process is also merely a time-killing process and the two nations are not serious in resolving the main hurdle in their relations that is the Kashmir issue.”
“We are not interested to participate in the ongoing talks process because until the dialogue is held under the auspices of the UN or any other friendly country, the Kashmiri leadership is included in the process and it is stated in clear terms that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the talks are being held to solve this dispute, till then all the dialogues will fail to deliver,” he said.
Geelani asked the Government of Pakistan to clear its stand on Kashmir. “Till Kashmiris are not taken into confidence regarding the recent talks and it is not elaborated that what stand Pakistan had adopted regarding the Kashmir issue in the ongoing dialogue process and what are their future strategies in this regard, our reservations will not end and we can’t support them,” he said.