J&K people main beneficiaries of India-Pakistan thaw: CM

Srinagar, Dec 9: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Wednesday said that the state's people would be the main beneficiaries of a thaw in the India-Pakistan relations.

Welcoming the visit of union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Pakistan, Sayeed said he hoped the political uncertainty in bilateral relations would end.

"I wish to change the destiny of the state's people who have borne the brunt of violence for nearly two-and-a-half decades," he said.

He was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of a bridge in south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

Referring to latest talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, Mufti Sayeed said a brief meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Paris on the sidelines of a climate summit prepared t he ground for quiet national security adviser-level talks and subsequent visit of Sushma Swaraj to Pakistan.

He said during the prime minister's public rally in Srinagar last month, he (Mufti) had favoured holding of talks between the two neighbours for peace and stability in the region.

"It(talks) is a victory of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who have always aspired for friendly relations between India and Pakistan. I hope this new phase of reconciliation will bear positive results for all of us."

He recalled his earlier tenure as chief minister in 2002 when India and Pakistan engaged in a constructive dialogue.

"I along with the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee changed the course of history by fostering a new era of friendly relations," he said.

Describing travel and trade across Line of Control as historic, the chief minister stressed on the opening of more such points across the state.

Presently, cross-LoC trade and travel is carried out at only Chakan da Bagh in Poonch and Salamabad in Uri (Baramulla).

Asking the youth to shun violence, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said gun had yielded nothing except malign Islam's message of peace.

Crediting India's democratic institutions as the real factor behind its rise in the world, the chief minister said Pakistan, on the other hand, continued to grapple with political uncertainty even nearly 70 years after its birth.

On the issue of forging alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, he said it was an outcome of two months of sustained deliberations presented before the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the form of 'agenda of the alliance'.

IANS