Within hours after the Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke to him over the phone in Srinagar about Pakistan observing Kashmir Day against India on February 5, separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Wednesday said that India has to move beyond the status-quo and reach out to both Pakistan’s offer of talks and to Kashmiris.

Soon after Qureshi spoke to the Mirwaiz, who is among those spearheading unrest in Kashmir, India reacted strongly by describing the development as “duplicity” of the Pakistani leadership.

This is for the first time that a Pakistani minister of the Imran Khan government has directly talked to a Hurriyat leader in Kashmir, while the previous regimes in Pakistan and their New Delhi based High Commissioners had been hobnobbing with the Kashmiri separatists in a bid to instigate them against India.

The Mirwaiz, in a meeting at the Hurriyat office at Srinagar, said and later tweeted, “Kashmir dispute is a reality & so is the fact that all three parties have to be involved in its lasting resolution. No amount of denial can change either. GOI (Government of India) has to move beyond status quo & reach out to both Pakistan’s offer of talks & to Kashmiri’s plight”.

At Hurriyat office today,Kashmir dispute is a reality & so is the fact that all three parties have to be involved in its lasting resolution. No amount of denial can change either. GOI has to move beyond status quo &reach out to both Pakistan’s offer of talks &to Kashmiri’s plight pic.twitter.com/TEqmurVaWj

— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) January 30, 2019

“We want a peaceful resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir issue and Pakistan is also willing to resolve it “We want a peaceful resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir issue and Pakistan is also willing to resolve it through peaceful dialogue,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq added.

The Kashmir issue should be seen as a political issue and not a developmental one, he said.

Mirwaiz said, “Kashmiris are upset because of the aggressive policies adopted by the Central government of India. They are responsible for pushing the Kashmiri youth towards militancy.”

Pakistan, every year, observes Kashmir Day on February 5 to protest against what it terms the “failure of India to resolve the Kashmir issue and the alleged human rights violations”. However, Pakistan is accused of having unleashed the worst type of human rights violations in Gilgit-Baltistan and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir under its illegal occupation. The Kashmiri separatists have also remained tight-lipped on the issue of Pakistan changing the demography of these areas by settling people from elsewhere in the occupied Kashmir.

Qureshi calling the Mirwaiz has triggered a debate on the social media with certain Kashmiris asking Pakistan to stop interfering in the matter of Kashmir.

One user, Mauseen Khan, tweeted to Shah Mahmood Qureshi, “The mess we Kashmiris are facing is MAJORLY because of your country Pakistan.”

Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi calls Hurriyat’s Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and talks about HR violations in Kashmir.

Mr. @SMQureshiPTI, the mess we Kashmiris are facing is MAJORLY because of your country Pakistan.
So stop interfering in the matter of Kashmir.✋

— Mauseen Khan (@mauseen_khan) January 30, 2019