Hurriyat rejects dialogue with Indian state on occupied Kashmir

Joint Hurriyat leadership. Photo: File SRINAGAR: The Joint Resistance Leadership (Hurriyat) comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Muhammad Yasin Malik has called the appointment of Dineshwar Sharma as Indian government's interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir as nothing more than a tactic to buy time after its failure of military repression upon the Kashmiris. The resistance leaders in a statement issued after a meeting at the Hyderpora residence of Gilani in Srinagar said that they have always advocated and supported sincere and productive dialogue as means of conflict resolution over Jammu and Kashmir but India has been continuously refusing to accept the reality of the Kashmir dispute. They reiterated that the use of brute force, killings, arrests, torture and harassment of women could not force the Kashmiris to give up their just freedom struggle. They said that permanent peace in South Asia could not be ensured without settling the Kashmir dispute in its historical perspective on the basis of right to self-determination. Meanwhile, Gilani in a statement appealed to the world human rights bodies and UN Human Rights Council to take cognizance of human rights abuses perpetrated by Indian troops in occupied Kashmir. He expressed deep concern over the biased approach of Indian judiciary against the Kashmiri prisoners. Malik in a statement strongly condemned the continued illegal detention of an elderly Hurriyat activist, Muhammad Sha?aban, of Kulgam.