DESCRIBING the situation in South Asia as precarious, the US has once again urged both Pakistan and India to resume dialogue. The US State Department spokesperson also termed tension in relations between the two neighbouring countries dangerous for the region. One fully agrees with the assertion and observation made by Washington that dialogue between the two neighbours is of great significance to reduce tension and make progress towards resolution of outstanding disputes, and the core amongst them indeed is that of Jammu & Kashmir where the Indian forces, especially ever since assumption of power by Narendra Modi, have broken all records of brutality and atrocity on innocent and armless Kashmiri people.
At the same time, the US authorities must also realise that it is not Pakistan but the Indian leadership that has stalled the dialogue process and in fact there is no hope of its revival as long as Narendra Modi is sitting at the top seat. Pakistan in fact has persistently stressed for comprehensive dialogue with New Delhi on all issues without any preconditions but it is the Indian side which has always shown intransigence and sabotaged the dialogue process under one pretext or another whenever it appeared that both the countries are about to begin the talks on thorny issues. Thus, verbal statements on part of Washington alone will not work rather it should use its influence and push New Delhi to restart result-oriented dialogue with Pakistan. This is the only way forward to resolve all the outstanding issues as tension or conflict will not give anything to the two countries and the region but only add to sufferings of the peoples already afflicted by poverty, backwardness and illiteracy.
The recent UN report on human rights violations in occupied Kashmir should also serve as an eye opener for all the western countries that never get tired of blowing the trumpet of protection of human rights. If they indeed consider themselves as the true flag bearer of human rights, they should come forward and pressurise India to grant permission to the UN fact-finding mission to visit occupied territory so that the actual situation could be ascertained after thorough investigation.
Source:Â https://pakobserver.net/us-call-for-pak-india-dialogue/
