Separatists welcome Pakistan resolution on self-rule in Indian Kashmir

Separatists in Jammu and Kashmir province have welcomed Pakistan's resolution, calling upon India to remove security forces from the state and to accept the Kashmiris right for self rule in the region.

"We are thankful to Pakistan Government and the people of Pakistan that they support our demands and the fact that they will keep supporting us on diplomatic and political levels and have passed resolutions reflecting so. We have always been against bilateral talks and we want the issue of Kashmir to get resolved through peaceful ways and keeping that in mind the resolutions that we have passed are in front of you," said Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP) chief Shabir Ahmad Shah in Srinagar.

The Pakistan National Assembly had on February 4 unanimously passed a resolution calling upon India to withdraw all security forces from the state and accept their right to self-determination. It also said that India should include the people of Kashmir in the Indo-Pak dialogue.

India has long accused Pakistan of supporting militants fighting Indian rule in an insurgency in its part of Muslim-majority Kashmir since 1989.

The two nuclear-armed countries have fought two wars over Kashmir but had sought to ease access and commerce in a region at the heart of more than 60 years of hostility.