Militancy has damaged Kashmir: Pakistani daily

Asking India and Pakistan to revisit the fundamentals of their Kashmir policies, a Pakistani newspaper said Sunday that militancy had caused huge damage to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Dawn said in an editorial that Pakistan had to recognise that its core policy - right to self-determination for Kashmiris - had been distorted for too long and in too many ways.

This happened because of the "armed jihad that was unleashed in the region with - no matter what the officially stated position is - the active collaboration and sponsorship of the Pakistani state.

"The rights of all Kashmiris were never going to be won through violence, and a policy of militants and proxies has caused incalculable damage to Pakistan's position on Kashmir, the Kashmir region and Pakistan too."

It said the new coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir between the BJP and the PDP, which hold vastly differing views on the region, was "more startling than it is necessarily cause for hope".

It added: "In this hour of unexpected hope, now may just be the time for India and Pakistan to revisit the fundamentals of their Kashmir policies."

The Narendra Modi government, it said, "may be forced to recognise the deep, open wounds the politics of communalism and exclusivity ... have created".