Learn in 5 minutesSrinagarUp to date: July 19, 2026 08:19 PM (IST)
Lots of water has flowed beneath the bridge within the 25 years because it flowed beneath the bridge. Landmark Agra Summit The Kashmir dispute was the primary stumbling block, and the negotiations ended with none decision between India and Pakistan. The political state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir has modified dramatically since its particular standing was abolished in 2019, however the hostile relationship between India and Pakistan has made the potential for dialogue nearly unthinkable.
However as troublesome as it’s, Kashmiri leaders say they don’t have any different possibility.
Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was one of many individuals who met Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf when he got here to the Agra summit in July 2001. The assembly was held in Delhi earlier than President Musharraf left for Agra, but it surely was not properly acquired in Delhi and was one of many elements that muddied the state of affairs.
Mirwaiz says he has forgotten the precise particulars of the assembly, however he remembers the uproar it induced. “It was actually a storm in a teacup. The way in which an enormous controversy broke out made us really feel that the Hurriyat and its views had been being misunderstood. To clear up this false impression, we determined to journey throughout India. I personally went to Kolkata and met Jyoti Basu (a CPI-M veteran who had by then resigned as Chief Minister of West Bengal). I additionally went to Hyderabad.”
Mirwaiz additionally mentioned the controversy compelled him to coin a brand new time period: “triangular talks” slightly than “tripartite talks” or “tripartite talks.”
“We had been simply saying that we would come with Kashmiris on this course of,” he says. “We weren’t averse to India and Pakistan speaking to one another as a primary step… We didn’t say that India and Pakistan must be in the identical room when they’re speaking. (However) the entire concept was that Kashmiri voices must be a part of the method. Now we have seen the Shimla, Tashkent (settlement), but it surely did not work as a result of Kashmiri voices weren’t a part of it.”
The Hurriyat chief mentioned he had no selection however to return to the desk and speak.
“Do we’ve got another possibility than to select up the strings from Agra? We can’t be at battle ceaselessly. We can not do it on a regular basis, like Operation Sindur or Operation Bunyanur-Marthus (Pakistan’s title for the 2025 offensive towards India).”
Mirwais additionally famous how a breakthrough appeared attainable earlier than the summit sank. Engagement between India and Pakistan in the end led to critical confidence-building measures and dialogue centered on Kashmir 4 years later. President Musharraf’s four-point proposal Other than bus providers for households divided by the Line of Management between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, that is to resolve the Kashmir dispute. Hurriyat leaders additionally boarded buses to journey to Pakistan as a part of the engagement course of.
This was adopted by the initiation of cross-LoC buying and selling.
Each bus providers and commerce have remained closed because the Jaish-e-Mohammed Pulwama assault in February 2019. The assault killed 40 militiamen and introduced India and Pakistan to the brink of battle.
Mehbooba Mufti, chief of the Folks’s Democratic Occasion (PDP) and former CM, mentioned of Agra: “There was numerous hope again then…a breakthrough gave the impression to be simply across the nook. There was a convergence of political concepts on the state degree and on the central degree, which is uncommon in Pakistan. (Prime Minister) Vajpayee ji was on the middle, and the state and Musharraf had been Mufti Sahib (PDP founder Mufti Mohd Saeed).” The Sahib of Pakistan thought that our leaders should do one thing. ”
Mai Tarigami, a veteran communist chief who visited Agra alone through the summit, mentioned whereas she didn’t need to be pessimistic, there was little hope for the 2 nations to have interaction within the close to future.
Referring to the revocation of particular standing and Kashmir’s “disappointment” over it, he added: “For the time being, the rifts between the 2 nations, the extent of distrust, are very excessive. There are not any important makes an attempt from both facet to slim or resolve these rifts or discover a manner ahead.”
However nobody imagined that the Agra Summit would happen, Mirwaiz says. “At the moment, relations between India and Pakistan had been additional deteriorating, firing continued on the LoC, preventing was at its peak, and crackdowns had been common.”
“Issues are significantly better” now, he added. Mirwaiz acknowledged that “unhappy” incidents just like the Pahalgam assault had been a critical setback for peace, however mentioned, “Even when the 2 nations usually are not speaking, the ceasefire retains the LoC in place.”
Mehbooba says she feels hopeful about latest statements by RSS leaders. “Kashmir is not a precedence, both right here (India) or there (Pakistan),” she says. “However there are some hints about talks from the RSS management and there are some rumors that there will probably be Monitor II talks…I do not know if they’re simply rumors or if there’s something concrete…However (any talks) can be nice…I believe we will decide up the place Vajpayee left.”
