On the day of solidarity with Kashmiris, when the entire country was swayed by chanting crowds and demonstrators, President Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Ashraf’s address to the nation pledging their support to the brave freedom loving people is welcome. Mr Ashraf stated that the Kashmiris should be given their right to self-determination, a stern message to the Indians who keep singing the atoot ang mantra.
Popular Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani made it loud and clear and indeed rightly that the India had failed in suppressing the intifada. Chairman Hurriyet Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq was harsher in urging Islamabad that Pakistan should form a policy so that there is what he called, ‘no escape’ for India. Of course,India has already been trapped in the Valley due to its decades-long illegal occupation and how brazenly it has violated the UNSC resolutions. It has to be held accountable for the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent people. Prime Minister Ashraf being the man at the helm has to understand the situation; Pakistan has to stick to its principled stand on the dispute.