There is no need for mediation on the Kashmir issue, the newly elected chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Syed Nazir Ahmad Kashani, said on Tuesday.
"India and Pakistan should be capable of resolving their issues bilaterally. If we talk in the context of the Kashmir issue, Kashmiri people have to be included," he said a day after being elected to the post for three years.
Kashani said if the two governments could run such vast countries, they must be mature enough to realise that durable peace in the region could only be achieved through bilateral talks.
"When a third party intervenes, the parties to the dispute do not conduct the dialogue with sincerity and hence the grouses remain even after a solution is hammered out by whatever means," he said.
Kashani welcomed the thaw in Indo-Pak ties. "We support all the moves that would put an end to the bloodshed and human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir."
New Delhi and Islamabad should know that peace and prosperity of the entire South Asian region was dependent on the relations between them, he said.
"India, Pakistan and the entire international community have accepted Kashmir as a disputed territory. The two South Asian neighbours should initiate a dialogue involving Kashmiris," he added.