Chairman of the moderate Hurriyat faction, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has proposed a new concept for resolving the Kashmir issue, United States of Kashmir, in which people would be able to move freely.
"I don't want to take the bus 20 years down the line, I want to fly to New Delhi, Islamabad or Tashkent. We want to move beyond the traditional line," he said without elaborating further.
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He was addressing a symposium on 'Kashmir: looking towards the future' organised by Pakistani daily Dawn in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Pakistan Peace Coalition and the Islamabad Council for World Affairs in Karachi on Friday.
"We desire to be citizens of the United States of Kashmir and we desire India and Pakistan to give a free hand to the Kashmiri leadership to come up with new proposals," he said, adding that the Hurriyat Conference has decided to take the initiative in the matter.
Farooq said, "Conversion of the Line of Control into a permanent border or the status quo is not acceptable. We are ready to explore other options. Decisions should not be imposed from New Delhi or Islamabad".
As India was not ready for tripartite negotiations, the moderate Hurriyat leader said "a way out could be triangular talks between Kashmiris and Pakistan, between Kashmiris and India and between Pakistan and India."
