Only dialogue can resolve Kashmir dispute: Ex-RAW chief

LONDON (AFP): India’s former Intelligence chief, Amarjit Singh Dulat has said that New Delhi has created a mess in Kashmir in the past 15 months, urging that dialogue is the only way forward.

Former head of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Amarjit Singh Dulat said this while speaking at an event in London. The function was organized by London School of Economics South Asia Forum.

“I think if there is one message that comes out of Kashmir, not today, not yesterday or the day before but as far back as one can remember…you can achieve a lot through love and compassion but you can never achieve it by force. That is the mistake we have created in the last 15 months,” he said.

Mr. Dulat concurred that dialogue was the only way forward, and India’s strategy of not engaging makes no sense at all. He said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his extremist allies are using harsh rhetoric against Pakistan to electoral and political advantage.

Opening the debate Ehsan-ul-Haq, the former Director General of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, said the situation in Kashmir, which had remained the oldest unresolved international dispute and the core issue in India-Pakistan relations, had taken a turn for the worse since last July.

He said forces had tackled protest with singular ruthlessness and flagged the shocking and indiscriminate use of pellet guns. “The Kashmir dispute cannot be wished away…if left unresolved it will keep returning as a crisis with increased intensity,” he said, adding that there were no problems between the two countries that couldn’t be resolved through dialogue.

He said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his extremist allies were using harsh rhetoric against Pakistan to electoral and political advantage.