WASHINGTON (PTI): A_ proposal of chairman of the house foreign affairs committee Lee Hamilton to tum the line of control in Kashmir into the Indo-Pakistan frontier has been endorsed by the U.S.-based Indo- American Kashmir forum.

 The proposal can be acceptable if it includes suggestions by Panun Kashmir organization of Kashmiri Hindus demanding a secure home- land) to ensure the nights of the Hindu minority in the valley, according to the president of the forum Vijay Kumar Sazawal.

 Sazawal has sent a copy of his proposals to Congressman Lee Hamilton and Gary Ackerman, Chairman of the Asia Pacific sub- committee of the House of Representatives, former Ambassador to India William Clarke, now a senior associate of the Center for strategic and international studies, cx-ambassador Nicholas Platt, President of the Asia Society, Indian Ambassador S. S. Ray here, ex-foreign secretary T N. Kaul and others.

 He had outlined the proposal initially at a meeting in the House of Commons in London under the auspices of the Jammu Kashmir Peace Committee.

Stressing that “there is simply no way that cither Indian or Pakistan can survive politically and meta- phonically if cither were to part with Kashmir,” Sazawal said “the “least damage opinion” out of the present tension and strive is to convert the line of actual control into the international boundary between India and Pakistan.”

This would complete the partition of the subcontinent and allow both India and Pakistan to claim ownership to some part (if not all) of Kashmir. “For Kashmiris … [does not take away anything from what exists today. On the other hand, more importantly than which side of the border they live, are the political, cultural and human rights issues that have been ignored in the past,” Sazawal said.

Kashmiris on either side of the border must be allowed to exercise their basic rights freely. There- fore, the first order of business is to encourage dialogue between the various communities in two Kashmir’s (Pakistan-occupied and dialogue between the two Kashmiris, India and Pakistan, he said.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 29, 1994