He said the Hurriyat was currently deliberating on how to seek Saudi help but a concrete plan had not been prepared.
Farooq arrived in the Kingdom on Thursday to perform Umrah and his visit, two weeks after the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is significant. He denied having any meeting with Saudi officials during his three-day stay. He left for Geneva on Saturday night to attend a meeting on human rights.
Farooq welcomed the statement made in Riyadh by India’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shashi Tharoor during Singh’s visit in which he said Saudi Arabia could be a “valuable interlocutor” in improving India’s ties with Pakistan. Although Tharoor did not mention Kashmir, many observers felt that he was talking about the Kingdom using its good offices to mediate on the contentious issue that is at the heart of the Indo-Pak dispute.
Although there was a big uproar over the statement in India forcing Tharoor to backtrack, the Kashmiri leader saw a policy shift in India vis-a-vis third-party mediation in Indo-Pak dialogue.
“Currently a rethink is going on in India. Given the strengthening of ties between India and the Kingdom, New Delhi would be more comfortable with Saudi mediation than any other country,” said the Hurriyat leader.
He said Saudi Arabia was influential not only in the Middle East but also in South Asia. “The Kingdom has a history of playing positive role in disputes, such as Afghanistan and Palestine. Kashmiris would be more than happy if the Kingdom mediated on our behalf,” he said.
Farooq said the appointment by US President Barack Obama of Farah Pandit, a Kashmiri Muslim woman, as special representative for Muslim communities, was an indication of the US administration’s approach to the Kashmir problem. He said some “back channel” dialogue was going on but refused to divulge details.
He referred to Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to South Asia, and said although his main job was to deal with the Afghan problem, Kashmir was part of his brief, which was another indication of the Obama administration’s responsive approach.
The Hurriyat leader, who heads a moderate faction of the coalition, called on India to demilitarize Kashmir and come clean on missing persons. “Nine thousand Kashmiris have been missing over the last 20 years. The mass graves discovered recently have further infuriated the people of Kashmir. They have lost faith in Indian courts and the security system. It’s time New Delhi did something to gain the confidence of Kashmiris.”
He expressed disappointment with the role of human rights organizations in India. “They have fallen into the trap of India, which, taking advantage of 9/11, has tried to link the freedom movement in Kashmir with terrorism.”
Insisting on a “political solution” to the Kashmir issue, Farooq said in the given situation, the “Musharraf formula” was workable. He was referring to Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf who suggested that India and Pakistan should consider the option of identifying some “regions” of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control, demilitarize them and grant them the status of independence or joint control or under a UN mandate.
The idea floated in the past of declaring the Line of Control as an international border was “not at all workable,” he said.
