Talks only way to bring peace in region, says Mehbooba

Srinagar, May 19

PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said that only meaningful engagement between India and Pakistan and the leadership of the state could resolve the decades-old Kashmir conflict and bring permanent peace to the region.

A party spokesman said Mehbooba chaired a meeting of the party’s top leadership and important functionaries of Kashmir and Ladakh here on Sunday. Mehbooba said it was high time for all political forces to come together and make strenuous efforts in unison to get Jammu and Kashmir out of the present uncertainty, bloodshed, mayhem and chaos.

“The world has now realised how the Kashmir issue, if allowed to remain unsettled, could become a major cause for pushing both India and Pakistan towards the brink of a nuclear war. It is high time that both the countries for their greater common good address the Kashmir issue on priority and to begin with, PDP’s self-rule formula is the best option as already described by the saner voices of South Asia,” she said. —TNS