Anti-India rhetoric marked the inaugural of the two-day conference on Kashmir in Washington, DC, belying its title, 'Beyond the Blame Game: Finding Common Grounds for Peace and Justice in Kashmir.'

Throughout the meeting many speakers did exactly the opposite of what the organizers, the Kashmiri American
Council, sought to achieve -- avoid blaming each other.

"While India makes allegations against Pakistan with respect to Jammu and Kashmir, it has consistently refused to either implement UN resolutions on the subject or to discuss a settlement of the dispute with Pakistan," Pakistan Ambassador to the US Ashraf Jahangir Qazi said.

"Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory. No one except India disputes this," Qazi added.

The ambassador charged that India claims the whole state of Jammu and Kashmir in defiance of the wishes of the majority of the people of the territory. "No other country endorses that claim," he claimed.

But it was not just the ambassador. Similar criticism was aired by Dr Ayub Thakur, president of the London-based World Kashmir Freedom Movement. Thakur, panelist at a session on 'Prospects for the Future: Alternative Scenarios for Resolving the Kashmir Problem,' charged that Indian leaders beginning with its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru have been including in double talk on Kashmir to mollify the world.

"We have given all the options to India (for a solution) but it has not buzzed an inch from its position, declared
Thakur, who the Indian government accuses of financing militancy in Kashmir.

But Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, was restrained.

"It is unfortunate that we (India and Pakistan) have failed to resolve our problem and now we have to move forward instead of backwards," Khan said, addressing the panel on 'Kashmir: Regional and International Dimensions.'

Asked if he agreed that some speakers had indulged in the 'blame game' which the organizers wanted to avoid, Khan answered in the affirmative.

"The purpose of the conference and the title is fine. But you have to remember that in the first conference of this kind it is impossible to completely avoid the blame game despite the best intentions of the organizers," Khan told rediff.com "Perhaps, it (the blame game) will be eliminated after a few such conferences."

Whatever the Pakistani ambassador said, Khan felt, had been said in his capacity as representative of the Pakistan government. "But I do not represent Pakistan. I am aggrieved by the sufferings of the Kashmiris," the PoK leader said.

"I sincerely want a peaceful process," he added, "and there is no point in blaming one party or the other for their acts of omission or commission."