HYDERABAD, Feb 4: The Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, Azad Kashmir, Abdur Rasheed Turabi, has said that the arrest of the leaders in Pakistan, who were the staunch supporters of Jihad-i-Kashmir, and the banning of Jihadi organizations would have a negative impact on the movement for the liberation of Kashmir.
Nevertheless, the people of Kashmir were continuing their struggle with all the powers at their command.
He was addressing the members of the Hyderabad District Bar Association on Monday.
He said that the freedom movement in Kashmir was continuing for the last 54 years but notwithstanding the resolutions of the UN, the people of Kashmir had been denied their right to self-determination.
He said under the circumstances the youths of Kashmir had been forced to launch a Jihad for the liberation of occupied Kashmir. He said due to this struggle, the Kashmir issue had attracted the attention of the world community.
He said 80,000 Kashmiris had been martyred in the freedom struggle which was clear proof of the fact that the people of Kashmir were not ready to join India.
Mr Turabi said that Pakistan had come into being on the basis of the two-nation theory and the areas where the Muslims were in the majority had to join Pakistan, and added that due to the demographic and social trends of Kashmir, which had a 98 per cent Muslim population, it too was supposed to join Pakistan. However, due to a deep-rooted conspiracy the people were denied their rights as a result of which they rose in rebellion and liberated half of Kashmir.
He said it was India which had gone to the United Nations and the Security Council had adopted a resolution that the people of Kashmir should be given the right of self-determination. However, India demonstrated its arrogance as a result of which the people of Kashmir started Jihad.
He said that India had deployed 700,000 troops to crush the movement but failed to do so.
He claimed that 27,000 Indian troops including three generals had died, and added that even the Indian army chief had acknowledged that the issue could not be resolved through a military operation.
He made it clear that no power on earth could crush the spirit of Jihad.
Mr Turabi said the Kashmiri Muslims wanted to join Pakistan because it was achieved in the name of Islam.
He said if secularism was introduced in Pakistan then India was a bigger secular state and it had a bigger market than Pakistan.
He said India was trying to change the minds of the people of Kashmir through cultural onslaught but the leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Syed Ali Shah Gillani, and others had foiled this conspiracy.
He said the people of Sindh must realize that Kashmir was the fountainhead of all the rivers including the Indus.
He said the analysts had already made it clear that the Third World War would be fought over water.
He said that India had tried to divert the flow of many rivers, and added that if the Indus was diverted not a drop of water would be available to the people.
Mr Turabi said during the last 12 years 11 governments had changed in Pakistan but no government had dared change Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir.
He said even Gen Pervez Musharraf himself had loudly proclaimed that there was a world of difference between Jihad and terrorism, and added that, however, after the incident of Sept 11, 2001, there was some ambiguity in the policy and reservations were being expressed about the ban on Jihadi organizations.
He called upon the Government of Pakistan to take up the Kashmir issue at the UN through the OIC, and press the international community for giving the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir.
SOLIDARITY EXPRESSED: The Women Care Foundation and Hawa organization held a joint rally on Monday to express solidarity with President Pervez Musharraf, the armed forces of Pakistan, and the people of Kashmir.
The rally, which was led by Syeda Tasneem Zohra, Kulsoom Chohan and Sultanzai, started from the Haider Chowk and terminated at the Hyderabad Press Club.
