Message Board

Is US using the Kashmir issue to try and get a permanent foothold in South Asia? Post your views

Saharanpur (UP): Leader of Pakistan's hard-line Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Fazal-ur Rahman on July 16 said dialogue was the only way to solve the Kashmir issue and made it clear that there was no room for terrorism in Islam.

At the same time, the Pro-Taleban leader said what was happening in Kashmir was not terrorism but a "struggle for independence".

Kashmir issue could be resolved through dialogue only and the religious and political leadership of the two countries should help in solving it, Rahman, who is leading a four-member JUI delegation on a rare visit to India, told reporters.

Rahman, who is in India on an invitation of Jamiat-Ulema-Hind and in (Uttar Pradesh) on a visit to Darul- Uloom University in Deoband, expressed happiness over the present relationship between India and Pakistan saying, "it is much better than the past".

Maintaining that Islam did not have space for terrorism, Rahman said all the religious institutes of Islam including the madrassas were not connected with militancy.

Rahman, who is being accompanied by JUI vice president Hafeez Hussain Ahmed and Parliamentarians Gul Naseeb and Qazi Hamidullah, addressed the students at Darul-Uloom.

Rahman had earlier visited the country in 1995 when little known militant outfit al-Faran, believed to a shadow group of Harkat-ul-Ansar, had kidnapped five foreign hostages in Kashmir.

Harkat-ul-Ansar has an ideological tie up with the JUI.

PTI