The Hurriyat Conference  said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan is an opportunity for Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan to break the ice and move forward in resolving their unsettled differences.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Samarkand in Uzbekistan on September 15 and 16 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The will be the first in-person summit after a gap of two years.

In a statement, the Hurriyat Conference said, “As Indian and Pakistani prime ministers will be in Samarkand…it is an opportunity to break the ice in their relationship and talk to each other and move forward in resolving their differences including the settlement of the Kashmir conflict.”

This is the first time after the COVID pandemic that Prime Minister Modi, his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif along with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will be attending the two-day summit.

The Hurriyat Conference alleged that the situation in Kashmir was volatile since the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into Union territories in August 2019.

The amalgam sought the release of all political prisoners, rights activists, youths and journalists jailed in different parts of the country. It also demanded the release of Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq “who is under house detention since August 2019”.

During the summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisation’s activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of multilateral cooperation in the future. Topical issues of regional and global importance are also expected to be discussed at the meeting.

Prime Minister Modi is also likely to hold a few bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.