A 10-Step Formula: Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief of the all-party Hurriyat Conference, has a dream

“The conflict in Kashmir can be solved, but if only a pragmatic, realistic and tangible strategy is established. It’s a mistaken view that the dispute is too complex to be resolved and that India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir hold inflexible positions. In any case, complexity is in the eye of beholder. There is not a single international issue that is not complex. I believe that peace and justice in Kashmir are achievable if the parties to the dispute make some sacrifices. The Hurriyat favours a mechanism that I have often described as “triangular dialogue”. What we mean by this is that the leadership from across the line of ceasefire be allowed to talk to the Indian and Pakistani leadership separately and then return to its people with their views. This will take time as well as effort.

We have welcomed the initiation of talks between India and Pakistan. In the interests of peace, two caveats are required. First, that the dispute involves three parties — India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir (the ones directly affected). Therefore, any attempt to strike a deal between the two without the association of the third will not yield a credible settlement. This has been made unmistakably clear by the flimsy agreements that were contrived in the past.

But if such talks are to mean anything, they must be accompanied by practical measures to restore an environment of non-violence. We believe that the following measures are must:

-The immediate cessation of military, para-military and militant action

Withdrawal of the military from towns and villages, and dismantling bunkers, watch towers and barricades

-Release of political prisoners

-Cessation of human rights violations

-Annulling repressive laws

-Restoring the rights of peaceful association, assembly and demonstration

-Allowing the Kashmiri leadership, which favours a negotiated resolution, to travel abroad

-Issuing visas to the Kashmiri diaspora to visit the state

-Creating the necessary conditions for an intra-Kashmiri dialogue embracing both sides of the ceasefire line

-Allowing a transitional phase before the decisive elements of the peace package are put into effect

My colleagues and I recently had an opportunity to visit the other side of the ceasefire line. When we got into our cars at the Hurriyat office, I was intensely aware that I was taking the same route that my grandfather, Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah, took in 1947 when he was exiled. I remember thinking that those were bitter times — a bitterness that has dominated for six decades. The time has come to change that. As we travelled further up the roads that link the two halves of Kashmir, I vowed to myself my children won’t live in a similar atmosphere. It convinced me that I must personally contribute towards the process that will bring resolution to the dispute.

As told to M Saleem Pandit, Times of India