Better chance of peace with India if BJP wins elections: Imran Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he believes there may be a better chance of peace talks with India and settle the Kashmir issue if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party BJP wins the general elections.

India will go to elections in seven phases beginning fromThursday.

   

“Perhaps if the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)….wins, somekind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached,” Khan told a small group offoreign journalists in an interview.

He said other parties would be afraid of right-wing backlashin case of settlement on the Kashmir issue.

Khan said Kashmir was the central issue between the twocountries.

India maintains that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmiris an integral part of the country and Pakistan is in “illegal occupation of apart of the state’s territory”.

Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after asuicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPFpersonnel in Kashmir’s Pulwama district on February 14.

Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force (IAF) carriedout a counter-militancy operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp inBalakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Forceretaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot,who was handed over to India on March 1.

Khan has said that Pakistan was taking action against allmilitants groups including the JeM.

Khan said that groups like the JeM were being disarmed undera serious drive to eliminate militancy from Pakistan.

“We have taken the religious schools of these groups understate control. It is first serious effort to disarm the militant outfits,” hesaid.

Khan said action was taken because it was important for thefuture of Pakistan. He also rejected the impression that Pakistan was compelledby the world to taken such an action. Meanwhile, batting for dialogue withIndia, Khan has said that Kashmir issue has to be settled and “cannot keepboiling like it is”, the BBC reported.

“…Peace with India over the disputed territory of Kashmirwould be tremendous for the wider region,” Khan was quoted as having said bythe BBC on Wednesday.

Khan, a former cricketer who became the prime minister eightmonths ago, said the nuclear-armed neighbours could only settle theirdifferences with dialogue.

Asked what message he wanted to send to Indian PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and his country, Khan told the BBC’s John Simpson thatthe Kashmir issue “has to be settled” and “cannot keep boiling like it is”.

“The number-one tasks of the two governments is how are wegoing to reduce poverty and the way we reduce poverty is by settling ourdifferences through dialogue and there is only one difference, which isKashmir,” he said.

Khan, as per the report, said the confrontation was verydangerous for both India and Pakistan. “Once you respond, no one can predictwhere it can go from there,” he said.

If India had “come back and then again attacked Pakistan, Pakistan would have no choice but to respond,” he added. “So in that situation, two nuclear-armed countries, I just felt it was very irresponsible.”

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