India rejects Sharif's 'peace initiative' to demilitarise Kashmir
United Nations, Oct 1: India has rejected Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's "peace initiative" saying that de-terrorising Pakistan is the answer, not demilitarising Kashmir.
After raising the Kashmir issue at the General Assembly on Wednesday, Sharif proposed a four-point peace initiative for India that embraces demilitarising Kashmir, renouncing the use or threat of use of force, withdrawal from Siachen Glacier and formalising ceasefire along the Line of Control.
In a rapid response, External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted, “To de-militarise Kashmir is not the answer, to de-terrorise Pakistan is.”
“Peace can be achieved through dialogue, not disengagement,” Nawaz said in his address to the General Assembly. “Cooperation, not confrontation, should define our relationship.”
But before proposing the peace initiative, Nawaz made the acrimonious reference to Kashmir, equating it with Palestinian and portraying it as a religious issue.
“Muslims are suffering across the world: Palestinians and Kashmiris oppressed by foreign occupation,” he said.
“The international community must redress these injustices against the Muslim people.”
Swarup replied in a Tweet, “Pak(istan) PM gets foreign occupation right, occupier wrong. We urge early vacation of Pak(istan) occupied Kashmir.”
Just after trying to internationalise Kashmir, Nawaz tried to couch the peace proposal as a bilateral move since India's condition is that the Kashmir dispute is a bilateral one and there should be no outside involvement. However, it did included a request to increase the UN Millitary Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).
Although, Nawaz tried to strike a conciliatory note with his proposal and its phrasing, he insisted elsewhere in his speech on “consultations with Kashmiris, who are an integral part of the dispute.”
New Delhi considers Kashmir an integral part of India and any such move an interference in internal affairs and counterproductive to a dialogue. Recent attempts at holding bilateral talks have been sabotaged by Pakistan bringing in the Kashmir question or engaging Kashmiri separatists.