Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said there can be a better chances of peace talks with India if Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
“Perhaps if the BJP -- a right-wing party -- wins, some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached,” Local media quoted Khan, as saying.
He added if the Congress party formed the next government, it would be too scared to seek settlement with Pakistan.
"This is despite the massive alienation that Muslims in Kashmir and in general are facing in Modi’s India," he said.
The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases till May 19. The result will be declared on May 23.
Imran Khan, however, said that the Indian Muslims who had been happy about their situation in India were now worried due to the extreme Hindu nationalism.
The Pakistan prime minister also said Kashmir was a political struggle and there was no military solution to it.
Imran Khan further said there was still a possibility that India could take further military action against Pakistan if Modi was voted out.
Imran Khan's open support to PM Modi has come in the backdrop of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) using the Balakot airstrike as a poll plank.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the February 14 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, that took the lives of as many as 40 CRPF personnel.
Imran Khan, however, continued to maintain Jaish was nowhere associated with Islamabad.
In retaliation to the Pulwama attack, India launched an airstrike on Pakistan's Balakot on February 26. Pakistan retaliated by bombing Indian military installations. The attempt was foiled by the Indian Air Force.
But IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by Pakistani forces and was later released as a peace gesture, as termed by Imran Khan, on March 1.
