LAHORE, Feb 7: The Labour Party Pakistan has urged India and Pakistan to withdraw their forces from the borders in order to avert any major catastrophe in the region.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, LPP’s general secretary Farooq Tariq said that instead both the countries should wage a war against poverty and ignorance.

He said that the people of Kashmir should be given the right to determine their destiny through a referendum under the auspices of the Kashmiris’ representative parties in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Tariq said that Kashmiris were an independent nation having their ‘own culture, language, territory and traditions’. Most Kashmiri people wanted independence and as such they should be given all the three options — joining India or Pakistan or having an independent status.

He said that his party firmly believed in the right of self-determination to the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Tariq recently toured some European countries as head of a party delegation. The party delegation comprised LPP Sindh general secretary Umar Baloch and a central national committee member Rizwan Ata.

He said that he and other members of the delegation spoke at a meeting at Brussels, the headquarter of the EC, and highlighted the cause of the Kashmiris. The meeting was organized by the United Left Group of the European parliament.

Mr Tariq said that by resorting to ‘disastrous’ bombing in Afghanistan, the Americans had promoted war phobia in the world. Instead of solving the disputes through dialogue, the language of war was now being resorted to.

Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee had now been using the language of US President Bush, he pointed out.

The LPP leader expressed concern over the deployment of troops by India and Pakistan on the borders and said that there was every apprehension of a major war erupting even on a minor pretext.