Pakistan didn't initiate Kashmir unrest, says ex-CM IoK

SRINAGAR: Former chief minister of Indian-Occupied-Kashmir(IoK) Omar Abdullah on Saturday said that the cause of unrest in the disputed valley was not initiated by Pakistan but due to Indian State policies.

He said that the Indian state scapegoat Pakistan to rescue itself from the time-to-time crisis and in view of bringing peace in the area, India should fulfill its promises given to the Kashmiri people.

Earlier, his father who is also the former chief minister of IoK, Farooq Abdullah, said that India lacked the courage to take Kashmir from Pakistan, adding that talks were the only way to resolved the longstanding dispute between the two countries.

Speaking at a rally in Kishtwar, IoK, Farooq Abdullah maintained that war was no solution to an issue, and to resolve the Kashmir dispute Pakistan and India will have to hold talks.

"Kashmir is not the personal property of India so that it could make a claim over it like an inherited property of forefathers," he said.

"Pakistan is one of the stakeholders (of the Kashmir issue) which even the government of India has accepted," the former CM of occupied Jammu and Kashmir said, adding that the government will have no option but to start talks with Pakistan so that the atrocities being suffered by the Kashmiri people could come to an end.

“War cannot bring the solution, talks can,” he added.

Kashmir has been witnessing unrest after the killing of 21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. At least 94 people have been killed, over 13,000 injured and more than 8,000 arrested during the over four-month-long unrest in the Valley.