India and Pakistan should provide opportunities to the leadership of Kashmir on both the sides to sit together and talk, and time for this has come, chairman of Moderate Hurriyat Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said today.
"It is an irony that there has been no meeting between the leadership of Kashmiris on both sides during the last 65 years.
"India and Pakistan should take initiatives to create an atmosphere to have the leadership of both sides of Kashmir sitting together and talking to see how to move forward for the resolution of this issue, because the people of Kashmir are the masters of their destiny and no solution could be forced on them," he said.
He said the Hurriyat wants a "peaceful and political resolution of Kashmir issue".
The chairman of Moderate Hurriyat Conference criticised the United Nations for "ignoring" the resolution of Kashmir issue.
"If we talk about the role of UN in the last 60 years, there are double standards. It took initiatives to resolve some issues, but it adopted a cold attitude on other issues including Kashmir," he said.
The Hurriyat chairman was addressing a seminar on "Kashmir issue and UN insensitivity" at party headquarters in Rajbagh here.
The Mirwaiz alleged that the UN was being "manoeuvred" by some powers to represent their interests.
"There is one stand of the UN on Syria, there was another on East Timor and another on South Sudan. It seems that the institution is being manoeuvred and guided by some powers so that it represents their interests. This thinking needs to be changed," he said.
"Hurriyat feels that the UN resolutions provide legality to Kashmir issue, but the reality is that we have talked about other options as well. We have said if UN resolutions are not acted upon, then the alternative is that the leadership of India, Pakistan and Kashmir should sit together and talk," he said.
