The thug General next door now wants to demilitarize Kashmir.

After his plethora of proposals on Kashmir over the last two years, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf now says that ‘‘demilitarisation’’ is his ‘‘final resolution’’ of the dispute. ‘‘I have proposed demilitarisation as a…final resolution. Demilitarise Kashmir, give self governance to people of Kashmir with a joint management arrangement on top. This is an idea I am proposing,’’

Close to fifty years of the Battle for Kashmir has only succeeded in bleeding Pakistan. From the Indian end, militarization was–is–required only because Pak’s successive thugs wouldn’t contain their itch. Which is why the General’s proposal is outrageously comical.

We could debate and modify the idea but we have to come up with an idea of final settlement of the dispute to the acceptance of India, Pakistan and people of Kashmir.

The only final settlement lies in Pakistan withdrawing its troops, dismantling its terror freedom fighting camps and diverting its energies to achieve peaceful goals. Given the General’s penchant for yarn-spinning, we can read his latest call for “demilitarization” as follows: India, pull out your troops so we can move in and take over.