Omar Abdullah says nobody should have problem with India-Pakistan dialogue aimed at improving relations

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said no one should object to dialogue between India and Pakistan aimed at improving the relations between the two neighbours.

Abdullah said that RSS leadership has also batted for the Indo-Pak dialogue and leaders from J&K have reiterated the same stand. He said that the conflict between the two countries was not new and has persisted for the last three to four decades.

"This conflict is 30 to 40 years old, and last year, it intensified after the Pahalgam attack. Now, the PM is being requested, through a letter, that the relations between the two countries should be improved. No one should have any objection to that," said Abdullah on sidelines of a function in Shopian district of southern Kashmir.


A letter prepared by OP Shah, chairman of the Centre for Peace and Progress and signed by 61 Indians and 55 Pakistanis, has urged the two countries to engage in dialogue. The ruling National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister of J&K Mehbooba Mufti, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq among others have signed the letter.

Abdullah said senior leaders of the RSS have also advocated improving ties between India and Pakistan. "Recently, a senior RSS leader said that India and Pakistan should talk to each other and become friends. When the RSS says this, no one objects, but when the leaders in J&K say the same thing, it becomes an issue," said Abdullah.

J&K CM reminisced the famous lines of former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had said that 'friends can be changed not neighbours.' "We want relations between neighbours to improve...nobody should have objection on that," said Abdullah.

The letter signed by around 116 people across India and Pakistan have directly urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif to revive bilateral dialogue and restore normal ties.

Among the signatories are former RAW chief A S Dulat, Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, former diplomat Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, besides several retired diplomats, armed forces personnel and civil society members. The letter urged both governments to take "meaningful and sustained steps towards restoring peace, normalcy, dialogue and cooperation in South Asia."