By Our Diplomatic Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mahdoom Qureshi on Monday has termed India’s June 24 all-party conference as extraordinary. Addressing a peress conference at Islamabad Mr. Qureshi said the Kashmiri leadership in India had rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal. “The meeting is a hidden indicator that points out how everything is not all right [in India],” he stressed. Kashmiri politicians will urge Modi to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy when they meet him on Thursday. The Kashmiri leadership meets the Indian premier for the first time since the government scrapped Article 370 of the Indian constitution, taking away occupied Kashmir’s special status two years ago, party officials said. New Delhi has struggled for decades to dampen secessionist sentiments in what had been its only Muslim-majority state.
Reasserting New Delhi’s control in August 2019, Modi abolished Article 370 of the Constitution, ending the region’s autonomy and removing its statehood by splitting it into the federal territories of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Buddhist-dominated Ladakh.
Some of the politicians set to meet Modi on Thursday were among the thousands of people detained back then to forestall a backlash against the shock move. The government also imposed months-long communications restrictions in the highly sensitive Kashmir valley to stifle opposition.
“Our agenda is the restoration of pre-August 5, 2019 status of Jammu and Kashmir,” People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti told her colleagues on Sunday, according to two officials who attended the online meeting. Senior leaders of the National Conference also met over the weekend and backed a decision to push for the restoration of statehood and special status, a party official said. The 2019 decision to withdraw occupied Kashmir’s autonomy drew a sharp reaction from Pakistan, leading to the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of trade.
