MUZAFFARABAD, May 24: The Muttahida Jihad Council, an alliance of 15 Kashmiri Mujahideen groups, has said that the armed struggle in Kashmir is not aimed at getting autonomy or any economic package, but for the liberation of their motherland from India.

The MJC’s comments through a statement on Friday came in response to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s statements made in Srinagar where he ruled out talks with Pakistan and offered a $1.3 billion development package for the Valley. It pointed out that successive Indian governments had failed in winning over the Kashmiris despite offering financial packages.

The MJC said that the armed freedom struggle would not stop until India withdrew its troops and Kashmir achieved freedom. People of Kashmir, it said, had not sacrificed 90,000 lives for the transfer of power, but only for freedom.

The council held a meeting here on Thursday after the Indian PM returned to New Delhi at the end of his 3-day tour of occupied Kashmir.