NEW DELHI: Kashmir's pro-independence alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC), has called for dialogue between Pakistan and India to "urgently" resolve a decades-long conflict over the disputed territory.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it in full and rule it in part. Since gaining independence in 1947, the nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmiri territory.
The portion of the disputed region ruled by India has been plagued by separatist violence since the late 1980s that New Delhi says is supported by Pakistan. Islamabad denies state complicity.
On August 5, 2019, New Delhi scrapped Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution that granted special autonomous status to the region, and divided the state into two federally administered units, sparking further hostility with Pakistan.
As the security situation is worsening in the region, the APHC said in a statement on Thursday evening that peace and the resolution of the Kashmir conflict can be achieved "through dialogue among India and Pakistan and the people of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir)."
“The fast-changing geopolitical reality of the region also points to the need for urgent conflict resolution," APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has been in house arrest since 2019, told Arab News on Friday.
Despite the recent resumption of a 2003 Kashmir border ceasefire between India and Pakistan in February, he added, "the oppressive situation on the ground continues unabated."
"Political leadership and hundreds of political prisoners and youth are languishing in jails or under house detention and the health condition of many among them is a constant source of worry," Farooq said, as most of Huriyyat leaders, including ailing Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah, remain in detention.
Srinagar-based political analyst Gowhar Geelani called Farooq's comments on Pakistan-India dialogue a "significant development" that showed there were "backchannel diplomatic parleys" between the two nations.
"This is indicative of the fact that there could be some forward movement on Kashmir as far as symbolic restoration of a political process is concerned," he said.
Last month, Kashmiri leaders from pro-India parties, many of whom were also arrested in the 2019 crackdown, also urged New Delhi to engage in dialogue with Pakistan and use backchannel diplomacy to address tensions between the two nations for the sake of Kashmir's economic conditions.
