Permanent solution to Kashmir not without Pak: Interlocutor

While talking to reporters after their arrival here on Saturday, Padgaonkar said:“Pakistan is not to be brought into Kashmir issue, for it is already there since 1947. No one can deny its involvement.”

The team comprising Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and Information Commissioner M M Ansari, is visiting the Valley in the backdrop of a boycott call by hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The interlocutors said they would try to break the ice and meet every section of the society, including the separatists.

“The separatists have every right to give any call. But we would not be sitting here. Rather, we will go and reach out to the people. If the separatists want us to meet them at their homes, we will have no hesitation. We do not have a confrontationist approach and I will use my personal equation with them for reaching out to them,” said Padgaonkar.

Be it self-rule or autonomy, all roadmaps would be listened to and clarifications would be sought wherever any confusion or overlapping arises, he added. Padgaonkar said they would try for a comprehensive solution, not just economic packages. 

“Our team would try to work out a comprehensive political solution of the Kashmir issue by meeting different shades of opinion,” he said.

“We do not have a magic solution in our hands. There are different perceptions about Kashmir: Ladakh has its own; Jammu its own. We want to meet the youth and women in particular on directions from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president  Sonia Gandhi. Both the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi want us to talk to the youth as much as possible for they are the future. Also we will be meeting women more and that is why Radha Kumar is part of us,” Padgoankar said.

He said the team would visit the Valley every month and it send recommendations to the Centre on a monthly basis.