Pakistani Envoy Says
Flexibility needed to solve Kashmir row
AFP, New Delhi
Pakistan's ambassador to India said Wednesday both countries needed to show "flexibility" to find a solution to the Kashmir dispute. "Both sides have to reject or cast aside solutions which are not acceptable to the other," high commissioner (ambassador) Aziz Ahmed Khan told CNBC, according to a Press Trust of India report. "There has to be flexibility by both sides in finding a solution." He said a solution to Kashmir should be one "that is acceptable to Pakistan, to India and to the people of Kashmir". Khan was part of a delegation led by Pakistan foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar, who held talks with his Indian counterpart earlier this week in New Delhi. The two officials discussed Kashmir and issued a joint statement aimed at carrying forward the dialogue for a "final settlement" of the dispute. Khan said the foreign secretaries would meet again in July and August. The northern Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between the two South Asian nuclear rivals and is historically claimed in full by both. The two sides have fought three wars over Kashmir, where an Islamic militancy has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989. Meanwhile, Pakistani officials Wednesday visited a jail in the north Indian city of Amritsar where 16 Pakistani prisoners are being held for trespassing into Indian territory, officials said. Muhhamed Khalid Jamali, one of the officials, said they had interviewed the prisoners to find out what had happened. "We will send a detailed report to the government of Pakistan," he said, adding the prisoners would be repatriated once checks had been made.
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