PM-Gen meet at UN won’t help: Geelani

Two days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session ...

Two days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, Kashmir’s hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani today predicted no progress on the Kashmir front can be made as New Delhi remains rooted to its ‘‘intransigent’’ stand.

Before leaving for the US, Manmohan Singh had said he would take up the issue of ‘‘cross-border terrorism’’ with Musharraf, thereby aiming to deflect discussion on the ‘‘real’’ issue, Geelani said. ‘‘Manmohan Singh’s description of cross-border terrorism is a deliberate attempt to divert from the core issue of Kashmir. It has once again shown that New Delhi does not want to solve Kashmir as per the wishes of the Kashmiris,’’ he said.

The 72-year chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference lambasted the UN for not playing a constructive role in resolving the issue. He said as long as the UN did not rethink on the five ‘‘veto-enjoying’’ powers, no problem in the world would be solved. He said the erstwhile USSR had used its veto 200 times in favour of India on the Kashmir issue. ‘‘Had there been no veto powers, Kashmir would long have been solved in accordance to the aspirations of the people,’’ he said.

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Similarly, he said, US was coming in the way of the Palestine issue. He appealed to the UN that they take into account the rights violations in Kashmir and other parts of the country before considering discussions on granting India a permanent seat in the Security Council. ‘‘If UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says international human laws should be respected, then it should consider India’s poor record in Gujarat and slaying of 13,500 Sikhs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination,’’ he added.

Geelani said he did not approve of opening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, alteration of LoC or converting LoC into permanent border being projected as any kind of progress on Kashmir. ‘‘All these formulas are meaningless. Indian should sit down with Pakistan to discuss the core issue of Kashmir. It should withdraw the resolutions on Kashmir in Parliament, acknowledge its disputed nature and then hold result-oriented talks in accordance with the UN charter,’’ he added.