Jammu: India and Pakistan are playing politics with earthquake relief, and have missed a great opportunity to build closer ties in a time of tragedy, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Friday.
?India?s tepid response to the tragedy has also reinforced a sense of alienation among many Kashmiris,? he said.
Tens of thousands died in Kashmir in earthquake. Many more are still sleeping out in the open, and fears for them are rising as temperatures drop.
?We thought both countries should have risen beyond politics, but the only thing we see is them involved in scoring brownie points off each other. It was an opportunity for India and Pakistan to really bridge the gap, to come closer to each other at this hour of crisis,? added Farooq.
India and Pakistan even got involved in a row about whether Indian soldiers had crossed the LoC to help their Pakistani counterparts rebuild a bunker.
?Repeatedly we had asked the government to at least open telephone links between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, but that has fallen on deaf ears. This only adds to the agony,? Farooq said.
India, he said, was also putting pride before the people of Kashmir by not appealing for international help, as Pakistan had. With at least 30,000 tents needed and only 5,000 distributed in Kashmir, India says it has run out of supplies and is manufacturing more.
Farooq has also been bitterly disappointed by the ?very cold response by business individuals and aid groups -- especially in comparison to the national response to the tsunami or the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat.?
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