October 20, 2001	Saturday	Shaba'an 2, 1422

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MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 19: Kashmir’s dominant freedom fighter group, Hizbul Mujahideen, on Friday deplored a statement of a top Indian Muslim cleric who was quoted by a web-based news agency as having said that there was no Jihad in Kashmir and that the militants were killing innocent people.

Mr Salim Hashmi, a spokesman of the group, said Imam Ahmed Bukhari of New Delhi’s historical Shahi mosque was speaking “India’s language” which was in sheer contradiction to the ground realities and factual position.

“It is unfortunate that Mr Bukhari gets influenced by Indian propaganda. Being a religious scholar, we hold him in high esteem, but his remarks are against the facts and have thus saddened us,” the Hizb spokesman said in what appeared to be a guarded reaction to Bukhari’s remarks.

India’s web based news agency, Times New Network, carried an interview of Bukhari, wherein he was reported to have said that what was happening in (Indian held) Kashmir was not Jihad, and that the militants were killing innocents which was wrong as Islam did not allow it. He lambasted Pakistan for “sponsoring terrorism” in occupied Kashmir and criticized the US for its “double standards” in bombing Afghanistan (to wipe out terrorism) but refusing to say words on “Pakistan sponsored terrorism” in held Kashmir.

“If Afghanistan has given shelter to terrorism, so has Pakistan. Why didn’t (Colin) Powell say a word about cross border terrorism in Kashmir or assure India that it would help it combat terrorism in Kashmir,” the agency quoted him as saying on the US defence secretary’s recent visit to Islamabad and Delhi.

Practically, the Hizb spokesman said, the Indian troops were ruthlessly killing the Kashmiris whose sin was nothing but demand for grant of the right pledged to them by India itself at the august forum of United Nations before the world community. “Let me tell the Imam that the Indian troops are savagely killing innocent people in held Kashmir. And this is what the world community has also started realizing,” he said, calling upon Imam Bukhari to pay a visit to the occupied territory to see for himself the atrocities being unleashed by the more than 750,000 Indian troops.

Mr Hashmi also described Bukhari’s utterances regarding Pakistan as far-fetched and unfounded. “Pakistan’s position is very clear.

According to UN Security Council resolutions Islamabad is a party to this dispute and in that capacity it extends political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiris’ just cause to bring an end to their plight,” he said.

Jamiatul Mujahideen, another hard-line group, said it did not expect anything else from Imam Bukhari because he was “paid by India.”

“Mr Bukhari has never spoken in favour of the Kashmir Jihad. Rather he has always been used by New Delhi against it. Therefore we cannot expect truthfulness from him,” Jameel Ahmed, a spokesman for group said.

The Jamiatul Mujahideen had warned Imam Bukhari against visiting held Kashmir capital Srinagar in July last year. “We do not need any certificate regarding our noble struggle from people like Imam Bukhari. Therefore his sermons make no difference to our Jihad,” he said, adding that the whole world knew that it were the Indian forces committing massacres and genocide of the innocent Kashmiris to perpetuate New Delhi’s occupation of Kashmir.

The Jamiatul Mujahideen spokesman however said the “traitors and those who betrayed the blood of the martyred Kashmiri” were dealt with in accordance with Islamic injunctions.