Pro-India parties in Indian-controlled Kashmir want India, Pakistan to end hostility

Pro- India parties in Indian-controlled Kashmir said on Saturday it was time for New Delhi and Islamabad to end hostility and initiate the process of talks to resolve all the long-standing issues.

"We hope now both the countries will take this initiative forward and to a next level," National Conference General Secretary Al Mohammed Sagar said. "The hostility between India and Pakistan should end and both the countries should sit across the dialogue table and resolve their differences."

Sagar said leadership of both the countries should show empathy toward Kashmiris, who he said were the worst sufferers of the hostility between two nuclear neighbors.

On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and members of other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, whose teams were participating in Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand as a goodwill gesture.

Modi said he would send Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar on a tour to the SAARC countries to further strengthen the ties.

The move by large was seen as thaw in relations between the two neighbors. Last year, India called off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan over Islamabad's engagement with Kashmiri separatists ahead of the meeting.

Meanwhile, the patron of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appreciated Modi's initiative to reach out to Sharif, and resumption of foreign secretary-level talks.

"Jammu and Kashmir (Indian-controlled Kashmir) have borne the brunt of wars, militancy and a destabilized political situation as a result of the conflict between the two countries, and it is a good omen that prime minister has taken up the bold initiative at a crucial stage," Mufti said.

Mufti expressed hope that the new initiative would lead to sustained and uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan.

Moderate separatist alliance Hurriyat (freedom) Conference has also welcomed the thaw in bilateral ties.

A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi's rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of sending armed militants to Indian-controlled Kashmir. However, Islamabad says it only provides moral and political support to Kashmiris.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. Endi