London, July 17: The Amanullah Khan faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has claimed that there were signs that India and Pakistan were beginning to move from their "entrenched positions" on Kashmir. "There were signs that India and Pakistan were beginning to move from their entrenched positions on Kashmir. Recent developments are somewhat promising. It appears that India has become more amenable to third party facilitation, rather than third party intervention," Zafar Khan, head of the JKLF diplomatic mission in the UK told newsmen here yesterday.
He said "the British and the Americans welcome this shift in inflection, and certainly our interaction with the (UK) foreign office suggests that they are quite happy India has shown this shift." Khan said the JKLF has launched a 'roadmap for peace and prosperity in South Asia' to solve the Kashmir issue.
The roadmap envisages setting up of An International Kashmir Committee (IKC) that would supervise a phased process to "reunite the divided Jammu and Kashmir state, making it a fully independent country, with a democratic, federal and secular system of government," he said. "While in the first phase the IKC would convince India, Pakistan and Kashmiri leaders that the proposed solution of the Kashmir issue is in the best interests of all of them and persuade them to co-operate in its implementation, in the second phase the proposed state would be demilitarised," Zafar Khan said.
In the third phase all civilians and militants would be disarmed, allowing exiled Kashmiris to return home, he said.
Khan said the contemplated fourth phase would see the reopening of roads across the dividing lines while the fifth and final stage "envisages holding of a referendum under the UN auspices in 15 years." Bureau Report