Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani has written a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appreciating his country's stand on the Kashmir issue before the NSA-level talks that were scheduled to be held on August 23 but were cancelled. A delegation of hardline Hurriyat faction met Pakistani envoy Abdul Basit on Tuesday and handed over a "confidential letter" for Sharif Sharif.
This was the first time that Hurriyat members met the Pakistani envoy after the NSA-level talks were called off by Pakistan. India had objected to Pakistan's extending invitation to Kashmiri separatists, while Pakistan refused to hold the dialogue without first taking the separatists on board.
Geelani was scheduled to have a one-on-one conversation with Pakistan's National Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz during the latter's visit to India.
In a statement a hurriyat spokesman said Geelani wrote that the "case of the Kashmiri nation is very strong and if Pakistan will show firmness over its recently adopted principled stand, India will definitely stand answerable before the international community and it will remain with no other option except to leave its traditional rigid and stubborn policies''.
"Geelani saab has written in the letter that the recent stand of Pakistan and their support and advocacy to the subjugated Kashmiri people is very encouraging for us and it has added a new life to the freedom sentiment of the people of our nation" a Hurriyat spokesperson said.
"The entire world listened the echoes of the Kashmir dispute and they came to know the fact that Kashmir is not any border dispute between India and Pakistan but it is the issue of the future of more than 1.3 crore people who are struggling for their basic and birth rights and are the prime and principal party to the Kashmir dispute,'' the spokesperson added.
The statement said the Hurriyat chairman also thanked the Pakistan army and the entire people for "showing unity over the Kashmir issue" which helped them in adopting the "strong stand" on the occasion of NSA-level talks. Geelani has told Sharif that Kashmir was a very important region with regarding to its political, geographical and particular location and India's "occupation in this region" could prove detrimental to Pakistan itself.
"The entire world listened the echoes of the Kashmir dispute and they came to know the fact that Kashmir is not any border dispute between India and Pakistan but it is the issue of the future of more than 1.3 crore people who are struggling for their basic and birth rights and are the prime and principal party to the Kashmir dispute,'' the spokesperson added.
The statement said the Hurriyat chairman also thanked the Pakistan army and the entire people for "showing unity over the Kashmir issue" which helped them in adopting the "strong stand" on the occasion of NSA-level talks. Geelani has told Sharif that Kashmir was a very important region with regarding to its political, geographical and particular location and India's "occupation in this region" could prove detrimental to Pakistan itself.