Kashmir issue: India calls for dialogue

In May 2011, India calls for dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue with Pakistan. Kashmir sits between India and Pakistan, half administered by India and the other half administered by the Pakistan government. The “Kashmir issue” relates to its political and administrative status: liberation from India, accession with Pakistan, or the formation of a sovereign republic.

For dialogue to move forward, the Indian government says that Islamabad (the Pakistan government administering Kashmir) needs to do more to persecute the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The Indian government calls for Pakistan to do more against terrorists operating from within Pakistan.

A senior Indian government representative said that there were “unresolved problems in Jammu and Kashmir for that we have to talk at various levels.” India says that Pakistan has been part of the problem “from the beginning” but that the Indian government is prepared and keen to hold talks. The Mumbai attacks, in which Pakistani insurgents were involved, disrupted the talks about Kashmir, said the Indian government.

Talks have actually been ongoing (on and off) since Partition – independence from the British - in 1947 after which a Line of Control separated Indian Kashmir from Pakistan Kashmir.

Martina Nicolls, "Kashmir on a Knife-Edge" (2010)

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