BSF-Rangers Talks Get A Green Signal From All

SRINAGAR: The separatist groups in Kashmir Valley Thursday urged India and Pakistan to go ahead with the upcoming meeting of border chiefs, days after the NSA-level talks between the two countries were called off.

Reports from New Delhi suggest that the talks between the chiefs of the Indian Border Security Force and the Pakistan Rangers are going to be held from September 9. Both sides have exchanged the agenda and the meeting is on track. This is to be followed by the meeting of the Director Generals of Military Operations who will discuss the ceasefire violations. The effort now from both India and Pakistan seems to be not to allow these scheduled talks to be derailed, and determine the next course after these are over.

Moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the two countries should go ahead with the talks to "defuse the tension" along the Line of Control and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The blood spilling on the border must stop. On two sides of the divide, it is the people of Kashmir who are dying. We urge the two countries to go ahead and stop this needless bloodshed," Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, political advisor to Mirwaiz, told The Citizen.

At least eight people have been killed on two sides of Kashmir this month due to shelling by the armies of India and Pakistan stationed along the Line of Control and International Border in J&K.

Dozens have been injured while many others have migrated from their homes and are living an uncertain life due to the escalation that coincided with the Independence Day celebrations in the two countries.

Advocate Islam said the borders should remain calm, "It will bring a sigh of relief to thousands of Kashmiri people who have become victims of violence between India and Pakistan," he said.

Veteran Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Geelani's Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH), said the talks should go on, "We are not war mongers. We are peace loving people. The two countries must resolve all the issue through talks," TeH spokesperson, Ayaz Akbar, said.

Akbar, however, cautioned that the talks between the two countries will not achieve any results if Kashmir issue is kept of the agenda, " The talks should not remains restricted to one issue alone. Unless the two countries address the core issue of Kashmir, the talks will see no progress. India and Pakistan have held many bilateral negotiations but they have achieved no progress because the Kashmir issue has not been resolved," he said.

While the NSA-level talks were called off after India "advised" Pakistan's National Security Advisor, Sartaj Aziz, against meeting the Hurriyat leaders, the later has confirmed the dates for the meeting between DG BSF and DG Pakistan Rangers.

The DG-level talks will take place from September 9 to 13 in New Delhi and the two countries are expected to discuss the issue of repeated ceasefire violations.

JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, said the two countries have issues between themselves which is for them to decide whether they want to resolve them or not. "We should we interfere in their issues? We have always welcomed any progress in relations between India and Pakistan but it should not come at the cost of Kashmir," he said.