Why is India not holding talks with Pakistan when it is talking to China: Mehbooba Mufti

Former chief minister of Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) Mehbooba Mufti questioned why India was unwilling to hold talks with Pakistan when it was talking to China despite Beijing taking “India’s lands”.

“There should be a dialogue between the two countries [India and Pakistan]. If we are talking to China, which has taken our land, why not with Pakistan? Is it about being a Muslim country because everything is communal now,” questioned the Kashmiri leader while talking about local elections in the occupied region.

Speaking to reporters in Srinagar, Mufti also slammed the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for its actions in the country, saying that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to build an environment where these is “no place for democracy”.

Read more: BJP's India validating Jinnah’s two-nation theory: Mehbooba Mufti

“There is no place for real democracy in BJP’s India,” reported Scroll.in citing the Hindustan Times.

“They want to create their own ecosystem. They have their own puppets and B-teams whom they want to install here [occupied Kashmir] and that is why they are making so many efforts for DDC elections,” observed Mufti while speaking to an Indian journalist regarding the first phase of District Development Council elections that were held on Sunday.

Reinstate Article 370

The Kashmiri leader also demanded that Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which grants special status to occupied Kashmir, should be reinstated.

Mufti warned India that the “Kashmir problem” will continue if Article 370 is not reinstated.

“Ministers will come and go. Simply conducting elections is no solution to the problem,” said Mufti.