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Former Deputy Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and BJP leader Kavinder Gupta on Sunday advised chairperson of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to refrain from commenting on India's foreign policy, emphasizing that the government is capable of handling its relations with Pakistan.
Gupta's statement comes after Mirwaiz expressed hope that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's upcoming visit to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting would lead to constructive engagement between the two nations. Speaking to ANI, Kavinder Gupta said, "The Ministry of External Affairs and the Government of India will think about its policy with Pakistan. Mirwaiz does not need to think or talk about India's foreign policy, the government will do it. They should be more concerned with India rather than Pakistan." Gupta stressed that Mirwaiz should focus on domestic issues rather than concerning himself with Pakistan, adding that Pakistan is notorious for fostering terrorism "There is no need for anyone to give such advice. Pakistan gives birth to terrorism and spreads it, the country is a 'gyaandaata' for terrorism. They are the ones who kicked out them (Kashmiri Pandits), they are the ones who created such an atmosphere," said Gupta. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who resurfaced on social media after almost five years, most of which he spent under house arrest, reiterated his commitment to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. "Generations of Kashmiris have been consumed by the uncertainty. We want an end to it, a fair closure. India and Pakistan have a real opportunity at the upcoming SCO Summit to break the ice and engage constructively. Hope they heed to it," Mirwaiz wrote in a post on X. Former chief minister of Jammu Kashmir Farooq Abdullah on Saturday also hoped that the participation of India's External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, in the SCO meeting in Pakistan later this month will help to establish better relations between the two countries. NC chief Abdullah said that he thinks the EAM will hold talks on how to bring peace between these two countries - through friendship and not hatred. "It's a good thing. The PM attends these meetings, I am happy that S Jaishankar is going, Pakistan has invited him. I think he will hold talks beyond SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) on how to bring peace between these two countries - through friendship and not hatred," the National Conference leader said. National Conference provincial president, Rattan Lal Gupta, said that his party welcomes government's decision to participate in SCO meeting. He said that NC has always called for maintaining good relations with neighbours. He said, "We welcome this. I think this is a very good time because the National Conference has always said that we should have good relations with our neighbours, especially with Pakistan and that we should have dialogues with them. So, now that the Foreign Minister of India is going to Pakistan, we welcome it and I hope new avenues for dialogue will open up. Like how former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee said we can change friends but not neighbours. We believe that if we have good relations with our neighbours, they will progress and we will also progress." External affairs minister S Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on October 15-16. However, the External Affairs Minister clarified that he is going to Pakistan with only the SCO in mind. "I expect that there would be a lot of media interest because the very nature of the relationship is such and I think we will deal with it. But I do want to say it will be there for a multilateral event, I mean I am not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I am going there to be a good member of the SCO. Since I am a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly," he said. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organization established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Its predecessor was the mechanism of the Shanghai Five. Currently, the SCO countries include nine Member States -- India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The SCO has three Observer States - Afghanistan, Mongolia and Belarus. At the Samarkand SCO Summit in 2022, the process of raising the status of Belarus within the Organization to the level of a member state started. The SCO has 14 Dialogue Partners - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Sri Lanka. Pakistan, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), is scheduled to host the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) in in Islamabad for October this year, Geo News reported. Earlier in August, India received an invitation from Pakistan for the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) in-person meeting. While addressing a briefing in August, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, confirmed the invitation by Islamabad for the SCO meeting. (ANI)
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