Pakistan’s high commissioner Abdul Basit at the interaction held at the IIMT campus in Greater Noida on Wednesday. (HT Photo)
Pakistan’s high commissioner Abdul Basit on Wednesday said the Kashmir issue can be resolved only through dialogue and it cannot be compared with Balochistan.
He was interacting with students at the IIMT group of colleges campus in Greater Noida on Wednesday.
When asked about human rights violations in Balochistan by Pakistan, while Pakistan keeps intervening in the Kashmir issue over alleged human rights violation by India, Basit said, “Oranges cannot be compared with apples”.
Last year, during the Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a remark of alleged human rights violation by Pakistan in Balochistan, which started a war of words from both sides.
Basit also said the Kashmir issue has been identified by both nations and successive governments are trying to resolve it through dialogue.
Speaking at the conference, Basit said, “Our generation has failed in building cordial relations between India and Pakistan, the world sees our two countries as hostile neighbours, enemies, but the onus is on the coming generation to better Indo-Pak relations.”
“We had spent 70 years fighting each other. Now the youth of both nations have to decide whether they want to keep fighting with each other in future as well or dispense their biases and start anew,” the high commissioner said.
“Terrorism is a problem that both India and Pakistan face. Not only Pakistan, but even India cannot realize its aspirations if peace is not established in the region,” he said, adding that talks between the nations is the only way to end this deadlock.
“If we allow our disputes to grow rather than sit across a table and discuss them, the problems between our two nations can never be settled,” he said and termed terrorism a regional problem.
According to a study, in all these years, Pakistan has suffered a loss of $120 billion due to terrorism. Pakistan is working to counter internal and external terrorism, he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, the Pakistani diplomat said, “We are confident to fight terrorism from within.”