Saudi Arabia can play a major role in solving the Kashmir dispute because the Kingdom is a friend of both India and Pakistan, said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Indian Kashmir's top separatist leader and chairman of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organization of pro-independence groups in Jammu and Kashmir. On a recent visit to the Kingdom on his way to Geneva, Mirwaiz Farooq in an interview with Saudi Gazette, said that it is high time that India “realizes the need to come forward and talk to the Kashmiris, involve them in the dialogue process and talk to Pakistan”. “Saudi Arabia has to come forward as a friend, especially because King Abdullah has the capacity, and he has been very keen to focus on India-Pakistan issues,” said Farooq. “The present situation is very conducive because of the Indian Prime Minister's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, in which he had a meeting with the Saudi royalty. We are hopeful that the Saudi government can play the role of an honest broker as they have always shown a keen interest in the Palestinian issue and in the past have been an arbitrator in Afghanistan. I am sure that as per the statement of the Indian foreign minister from Riyadh regarding the Kingdom's role as a mediator, Saudi Arabia can help us in our cause,” he said, adding that “international assistance and involvement” in the Kashmir issue is necessary for the composite dialogue process to resume. He said that though his visit to the Kingdom has a religious purpose, “it is important that we continue to focus on our issue, which is that of human rights and civil liberties, and which has been overlooked by the international community”. “An official visit by a Kashmiri delegation to Saudi Arabia is in the cards, in which we will request the Saudi government to use its good offices with both India and Pakistan in order to resolve the Kashmir issue. We are in the process of putting forward a proposal to the Saudi government,” said Farooq. “Usually a conflict is between two parties, but here it is between three and is unique. In the past 50 years, the Kashmiri leadership has not been given opportunities to participate in discussions. Saudi Arabia can play the host and involve leaders from both sides, bring forth their suggestions, and have a negotiation process or a dialogue restarted.” He said there have been “many suggestions” in the past 20 years, however, a political will in India in resolving the issue is needed, adding that Pakistan is much more flexible in their approach. Underscoring the role of the Indian, Pakistani and Kashmiri communities in the Kingdom in the Kashmir issue, he said: “Saudi Arabia is the center of all Islamic activities, and as such, people living here are always focused on issues that bother the Ummah, such as the Palestinian and Kashmir issues, which are the oldest on the United Nations agenda”. He said that the situation in the valley is still disturbing though the violence has gone down. “When there is violence, India starts blaming the Kashmiris and Pakistan. The biggest issue now is the demilitarization of Jammu and Kashmir. We want the Indian troops to be moved out from the cities so that some dignity is returned to the common man there,” he said. He said that after 9/11, issues of human rights have lost focus, and that the Indian government has attempted to link the Kashmiri struggle with terrorism, extremism, violence and Al-Qaeda – “which is not true because the Kashmiri problem is a political problem, having a political history and dimension”. “In Geneva, I will be pressing hard on the issues of human rights and civil liberties, incidents that recently took place in Kashmir, such as the rape and murder of two girls in Shopiyan and the case of two 16- and 17-year-old boys who were shot dead by the police. The people of Kashmir have lost hope and trust in Indian institutions, namely, the state human rights commission, the CBI and the judiciary,” said Farooq, adding that about 9000 people have gone missing in Kashmir in the past 20 years.
