Kashmir Trade Federation vouched for Once-For-All settlement of Kashmir Issue

Kashmir trade on Wednesday vouched for once-for-all settlement of Kashmir Issue in a meet with a five-member group from New Delhi led by right wing BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha.

Former Union Foreign Minister Sinha landed in Srinagar on Tuesday and held closed door meetings with Hurriyat patriarch Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq the same day. However, Sinha asserted he and his colleagues do not represent government of India confirmed by a top Union Home Ministry official and a spokesperson of BJP.

They are a three-day visit to Kashmir. On Wednesday, the Sinha group met KCCI and KEA in two meetings at two different places. Interestingly, the top two Kashmir trade bodies did not focus on dent to Kashmir economy but batted for political solution to the ‘root cause’.

“We presented a brief of the ground situation prevailing in the valley since July 09, 2016,” KCCI president Mushtaq Ahmad Wani told Kashmir Post, “we conveyed them the sufferings of ours, our people.”

Wani said he told the group, “Kashmir is not an economic issue but a political one that needs to be solved by unconditional dialogue with all stakeholders.”

The trade bodies were told the group landed in Srinagar on the air tickets they bought themselves.

“There is no government (of India) backing,” the delegation reportedly told the Kashmir trade groups. “We are here in individual and personal capacities to share suffering and the pain of the Kashmiris.”

“There are people in India who are really concerned about Kashmir and can feel the pain of people here,” Sinha told KCCI members.

Siraj Ahmad, who represented Kashmir Economic Alliance led by Muhammad Yasin Khan told Kashmir Post that the trade group told the Sinha group in “categoric terms”, “talk to the politicians who are spearheading the current uprising.”

“We first listened to the group,” Siraj said, “and our response was clear: government of India should initiate an unconditional dialogue with resistance leadership.”

Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik – all incarcerated – are spearheading the current civil uprising since July 09, 2016.

Siraj said that the trade group wants an “once for all settlement of Kashmir Issue which is totally political in nature”.

“We told the group that current Indian leadership and its media are misleading common India society,” he said. By holding this meet, Siraj added, “we told the Sinha led group that Kashmiris expect them to present the real picture and Issue of ours.”

“We think it as mobilisation of Indian public opinion,” Siraj said about the meet.

“Kashmir is a conflict zone,” he said detailing further about the meeting and stress on Kashmir economy, “we told them that Kashmir economy will suffer unless the root cause is addressed.”

“When the issue is settled once for all, our economy will be stable and our future will be safe,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued this afternoon, the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Inc) said it impressed upon the delegation that it was a political problem which needed to be solved by India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir through unconditional and sustained dialogue in the interest of peace, prosperity and wellbeing of the people of the region.

The KCCI asked the group to use their good offices in getting the thousands of arrested persons under various laws released and the Government employees reinstated whose services have been terminated.

“The leader of the group (Yashwant Sinha) informed the meeting that it was a sincere effort on the part of the delegation to initiate a meaningful dialogue with the stakeholders so as to help find a way for starting a meaningful dialogue for the lasting and peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue,” the statement added.

“Yashwant Sinha expressed that had National Democratic Alliance (NDA) not lost 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Kashmir issue would have been resolved to the satisfaction of all the stake-holders,” the statement said.