SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Centre's interlocutors on Kashmir today got the backing of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for comments on involving Pakistan to resolve the issue but the BJP accused them of dabbling in issues beyond their mandate while the Congress said no party should play politics on such a sensitive matter.
Omar said the comments made by Dileep Padgaonkar, heading the three-member group, that Pakistan has to be involved for a permanent solution to the Jammu and Kashmir, issue cannot be ignored.
"Nothing what the interlocutors had said with regard to Pakistan's role in Jammu and Kashmir is wrong. After Simla agreement whenever talks were held with Pakistan, Kashmir has figured in it," he told reporters here.
Parliament had passed a resolution in 1995 calling for withdrawal of Pakistani troops from PoK, Omar said on the sidelines of a function here.
"Rightly or wrongly, is it not making Pakistan a party. Pakistan has a role in Jammu and Kashmir. How can you ignore it?" asked the Chief Minister.
In Jammu, Pradesh BJP Spokesperson Nirmal Kamal slammed Padgaonkar of "dabbling on issues" which are against the mandate given to the interlocutors.
She said Padgaonkar's statement creates doubts about whether the interlocutors are really carrying forward the stated agenda or they are on some other mission.
It also raises questions on what exactly is the brief to these interlocutors by Prime Minister's Office in the state, Kamal said.
In New Delhi, Congress steered clear of questions on whether it supports the stand of Padgaonkar, saying no party should play politics on such a sensitive matter.
"No individual, group political party or political groups should play politics into it and ignore national interests. Nobody should conduct (themselves) in a manner which put obstructions in such sensitive works. Kashmir is a sensitive issue and the job of the interlocutors is also very sensitive," party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed told reporters.
His comments came in the backdrop of BJP slamming Padgaonkar for his comment and demanding that the PMO explain if this was part of the brief of the team.
Padgaonkar had also said that a dialogue with Pakistan is as necessary as holding talks with people of Jammu and Kashmir to resolve the Kashmir issue.
He had said, "we have been engaged with Pakistan, every successive governments in India is engaged with Pakistan on this issue and it is not the question of internationalisation, it is a bilateral dispute which is going on since 1947-48 and a dialogue with Pakistan is as necessary as the dialogue with the people of the state.
When asked about the criticism, Padgaonkar had stuck to his views, saying what he had stated was nothing new.
The Congress spokesperson while praising the Centre-appointed interlocutors as "very competent individuals in their field, who have have acquired great respect", said it would be premature to comment on Padgaonkar's statement.
"We neither support nor oppose what they have said.... This is very pre-mature. Interlocutors will work as per the mandate they have been given. They will talk to a cross section of people, elicit their views and then submit their report. Right now the thing has just begun and it is not correct to find fault at this stage," Ahmed said.
He, at the same time, maintained that it has been an old stand of the Government of India that Kashmir was an integral part of the country and no fact could be otherwise.
"Our concern is that obstructions should not be put in interlocutors' job through unnecessary statements," Ahmed added.
