US-KASHMIR

"The murder and mayhem is being conducted by groups
that have absolutely no connections to Kashmir. To my mind
that is story, the fact that this is a group that has
operations in 21 countries, that has an ideology that is
completely anti-western, that is opposed to modernity and
secularism and all the kinds of values that we take for
granted. This group is not going to be satisfied by dealing
with the issue of Kashmir," Tellis said.
Testifying before the same committee, Lisa Curtis of
the Heritage Foundation, referred to the Musharraf formula on
resolving the Kashmir dispute; which the then Pakistani
President made in a statement in December 2006.
"He (Musharraf) made a very important statement in
December of 2006, where he said Pakistan would be willing to
give up its claim on Kashmir if four things happen.
He said, if the Line of Control that divides Kashmir
was made irrelevant, which means people could freely pass back
and forth could pass back and forth," said Curtis, who is
known as an American authority on South Asia.
"Two, (Musharraf said) if Kashmir was given greater
autonomy. Three, if both sides could figure out a joint
mechanism to interact, to have the two sides of Kashmir,
Pakistani Kashmir and Indian Kashmir interact. So he made a
very forward looking proposal.
And as we know by Steve Coll, who wrote about this
in the New Yorker Magazine not too long ago, they were very
close to coming to some kind of agreement or understanding on
Kashmir," Curtis said.
Except for Congressmen Dan Burton tended to agree with
the observations made by these eminent experts. Burton, who is
well-known for his anti-India approach at the Congress,
believed otherwise. MORE PTI