IIOJK in focus

Kashmiri hopeful about resolution of differences: NC on Jaishankar’s Pak visit

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Sunday said that people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir are hopeful that Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan for an Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting will be “start of a new dawn.”

According to Kashmir Media Service, Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on October 15-16.

NC Chief spokesperson and communication incharge Tanvir Sadiq in a statement issued in Srinagar also expressed hope that the visit will “break the ice,” referring to the frosty relations between two nuclear-armed countries.

“It is a good beginning. It is after nine years that External Affairs Minister is going to Pakistan. It is something that probably the sub-continent is happy. I am very hopeful, especially the people of Jammu and Kashmir are hopeful that this will break the ice and this will be start of a new dawn,” Tanvir Sadiq said.

“I hope they talk about all issues between India and Pakistan and there is something that goes beyond just mere rhetoric. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are hopeful that differences are resolved and there is some resemblance of normalcy between the two countries, “Sadiq added.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organization established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Its predecessor was the mechanism of the Shanghai Five.

Currently, the SCO countries include nine Member States — India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The SCO has three Observer States – Afghanistan, Mongolia and Belarus.

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