Include J&K in Indo-Pak dialogue: Mehbooba Mufti
Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti Thursday said dialogue between India and Pakistan is ‘fruitless’ unless Jammu and Kashmir is included in it.
She said the route to trade and peace between India and Pakistan passes through Jammu and Kashmir and no exercise will prove helpful until Jammu and Kashmir is included in the parleys. She said if India and Pakistan have resumed limited trade, then Muzzafarabad and Rawlakot trade links should also be restored.
“Whatever discussion between India and Pakistan takes place in terms of trade, its routes passes through Jammu and Kashmir and I don’t think dialogue will prove fruitful unless Jammu and Kashmir is included in confidence building measures,” Mehbooba told reporters after meeting workers at PDP office here.
PDP president also said the “experiment of weakening federal structure of India was started from Jammu and Kashmir when its special constitutional position was scrapped on August 05, 2019.”
She also said that she wrote a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, insisting on a joint approach to fight against the center’s plans to weaken federal structure of India.
“The experiment started from Jammu and Kashmir is now being expanded across India; like they snatched powers from Delhi CM. So all the opposition parties have to be united against plans to weaken the federal structure of India,” she said adding opposition in India was mute, when Jammu and Kashmir was divided on August 05, 2019.
