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Author: Indo Asian News Service
Publication: Yahoo News
Date: April 14, 2006
URL: http://in.news.yahoo.com/060414/43/63jkm.html
Two influential Muslim clerics have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the Kashmir issue, saying they would support Congress president Sonia Gandhi's election campaign only if she took concrete steps in this direction.
Syed Sarwar Chisti, secretary of Ajmer's Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti shrine, and Maulana Mohammad Haroon of the All India Tanzeem Aimma-E-Masajid made the appeal in separate letters to the prime minister.
Both were clear in the quid-pro-quo they expected for supporting Gandhi's campaign in Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli constituency to return to the Lok Sabha after resigning her seat over the office of profit controversy.
'Our support will only be given if she solves the problems of the people of Kashmir and Muslims, especially the community's socio-economic backwardness,' Chisti said.
'We appeal to Sonia Gandhi that if she wants the vote of the Muslim community, she should take concrete steps and measures for solving the Kashmir problem,' Haroon said.
Chisti wanted Manmohan Singh to take advantage of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's 'stance' as well as the willingness of the leaders of Jammu and Kashmir to initiate 'immediate and positive steps' to resolve the issue.
He urged the prime minister to go beyond cosmetic utterances, failing which he apprehended the Kashmir issue would escalate into a deep human tragedy involving Muslims in Kashmir and the rest of the country.
Chisti noted that his message was going out from a shrine where secularism had been practised for 800 years.
'The message is for the solution of the overwhelming problems of the Kashmiri population and not in support of any particular group or leaders. This is a message in the best cause of humanity,' he asserted.
Haroon appealed to the Indian and Pakistani governments to expeditiously resolve the Kashmir problem in keeping with the wishes of the people of the state.
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