KARACHI, Aug 28: The Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy has urged Islamabad to take up with New Delhi the issue of the killing of a popular Kashmiri leader and many other protesters during the recent protests against Indian repression in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Representatives of the forum speaking at a news conference here on Thursday expressed solidarity with the Kashmiris and condemned the brute force used by Indian security forces to quell the peaceful demonstrations in the Valley. They urged Indian authorities to initiate a dialogue with Kashmir leaders to resolve the issue in a civilized and peaceful manner.

They observed that the peace process initiated by the governments of Pakistan and India had been on the backburner for quite some time, and called for a resumption of the parleys.

Instead of indulging in lip service and making tall claims, the two governments should take concrete steps to ensure lasting peace in South Asia, they said.

I. A. Rehman, describing the situation prevailing in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir as “grave”, said the recent developments there were a setback to the peace process. The Pakistan-India peace talks must resume now and the Kashmiri people should be included in the parleys on the future of the disputed territory with a view to resolving the issue as per the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, he stressed.

He observed that a wave of protests against India in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir had triggered nearly a decade back but the nature of the protests remained political, secular and non-violent until the “trans-border jihadi elements sneaked into the movement and started killing non-Muslims.” However, he added, the violence subsided when these elements were withdrawn by their patrons from across the border.

Mr Rehman said that the ongoing protests in the occupied valley were purely a local uprising, urging the Indian authorities to initiate a dialogue with those leading the demonstrations and rallies instead of using brute force to suppress them.

M. B. Naqvi said that the recent issue came up after the government granted a piece of forest lands to a Hindu religious shrine — the Amarnath Shrine — kicking off a wave of protests by Muslims across the occupied valley. The government tried to suppress the protests by using brute force and this led to violence. Many protesters, including a frontline Kashmiri leader, were killed and injured, he added.

Mr Naqvi pointed out that Kashmir was the core issue in Pakistan-India relations and unless it was resolved according to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, a lasting peace between the two nuclear powers could not be ensured.

Anis Haroon said that the Pakistan government had not properly taken up this serious issue probably because the country itself had been faced with crises for a couple of years. She deplored gross human rights violations in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and urged the Indian authorities to take immediate steps to restore peace and harmony.

She observed that the process of peace between Pakistan and India had been under way for more than five years but in spite of many confidence-building measures having been identified to improve the bilateral ties, nothing concrete had emerged in this regard so far. Instead, she noted, the proposed steps to ease visa restriction could not be taken and the procedure was made difficult through harsh conditions introduced by the two governments.

Ms Haroon called for easing visa restrictions to facilities visits of divided families across the border. In the next phase, she suggested, peoples of the two countries should be given tourist visas to help promote friendly interactions and ensure bringing the two populations closer to each other. This, she added, would enable peoples of both the countries to understand and counter the propaganda resorted to by vested interests for decades.

She said that the forum was organizing conventions in Pakistan and India. The first event of the series was organized in Delhi, she said, adding that the following events were held in Lahore, Calcutta, Peshawar, Bangalore, Karachi and again in Delhi. The next convention was scheduled to be held in a Pakistani city but had to be cancelled twice, she said. She attributed the cancellation of the conventions — first in Lahore and then in Peshawar — to “bureaucratic” delays. “In fact the government did not want to allow holding of the event,” she remarked.