Omar backs his father, lays thrust on Indo-Pak dialogue

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday attempted to downplay his father Farooq Abdullah's 'all of India's forces can't defend against terrorists' remark and stressed on the need for a political resolution to the Kashmir issue through talks between India and Pakistan.

"We want talks to take place. We have always been in favour of finding solutions through dialogues. But the truth is that the relation between the two countries is so stressed that it is difficult to decide the level of the talks and where. The current situation is such that we are not even ready to play a cricket match against each other. Even if there is a dialogue on playing a match it is being held in a third country altogether," Omar told ANI here.

"In such a situation, the atmosphere of a dialogue doesn't seem to be right. We want that the heads of the two countries must meet either in New Delhi or Islamabad and ease the tension and create an atmosphere of dialogue," he added.

Asserting that his father and National Conference chief has said the right thing, Omar said, "One can use weapons to a certain extent only, after that the political dialogue will have to take the process forward."

"We agree that there has been immense contribution of security forces in Kashmir but if there has to be a solution for this problem then you will have to replace force with political dialogue," he added.

Speaking at the seminar, Good relations between India and Pakistan vital for peace in South Asia, Abdullah said that talks were the only way forward and added: "If it is not done, even Farooq Abdullah, who is speaking in front of you today, will not be there tomorrow. One or the other terrorist will come and kill him.