June 14, 2002	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

MUZAFFARABAD, June 13: Demonstrations, rallies and public meetings, coinciding with the visit of United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Pakistan, were held across Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to protest the double standards of the Western countries regarding the Kashmir dispute.

AJK president, prime minister and other leaders addressed a public meeting, attended by hundreds of people, in the Old Civil Secretariat.

Banners at the venue condemned India for unleashing reign of terror in occupied Kashmir and pledged support to the Kashmiri Mujahideen.

“The West should differentiate between freedom struggle and terrorism,” a banner said. Another read: “Western countries should give up their double standards regarding Kashmir.”

Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan had announced at the All Parties’ Kashmir Conference on June 2 that AJK would observe a general strike to protest the double standards of the Western countries, particularly the United States, on the day of Mr Rumsfeld’s arrival.

However, well-placed sources told Dawn that the AJK government was asked by the military set-up on Wednesday night that there should not be any banner with anti-US slogans at the rallies.

AJK President Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan, in his speech, however, reminded the US that its objectives to establish peace, stability and security in South Asia could not be achieved unless the issue of Kashmir was settled in accordance with the wishes of its people.

He asked the Western countries to remove misgivings and misunderstandings about the freedom struggle in Kashmir.

“There should not be biases and prejudices. The freedom movement that was launched in 1989 cannot be labelled as terrorism in 2001,” he said.

The president also asked India to take concrete measures to show that it was serious in easing tensions as, according to him, the recent steps taken by New Delhi were nothing but an eyewash.

Sardar Sikandar said the purpose of the demonstrations was to persuade the West to give up duplicity on Kashmir and stand by the Kashmiris.

“Today, when Mr Rumsfeld is in Islamabad, we want to tell him that we do not have enmity with the Western countries, but we cannot help protest against their double standards regarding Kashmir,” he said.

He said the media was suggesting that tensions between India and Pakistan were receding, “but there was no change on the ground.”

“Out of seven districts of Azad Kashmir, five are facing Indian aggression unabatedly,” he said referring to unrelenting Indian shelling, which has left scores of people dead and wounded along the Line of Control.

Sardar Sikandar rejected US defense secretary’s statement regarding presence of Al Qaeda in Kashmir as contrary to factual position.

He said the Kashmiris were demanding the right to self-determination, which was pledged to them by the international community, including India and the US.

APHC leader Ghulam Mohammad Safi, Jamaat-I-Islami Azad Kashmir Amir Abdur Rashid Turabi and others also spoke.

A resolution, read by Finance Minister Shah Ghulam Qadir and adopted by the participants, stated that the “revelation by Mr Rumsfeld regarding presence of Al Qaeda without any proof had endorsed India’s provocative actions and disappointed the Kashmiris.” The statement had provided a solid base for protest, it said.

“We cannot accept the sanctity of the LoC. We demand increase in the number of United Nations military observers, who should also be assigned the task to monitor human rights abuses, so that they could inform the UN of the actual situation,” the resolution said.

It also condemned the arrest of senior APHC leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other Kashmiri leaders and called upon the human rights watchdogs to take note of it and pressure India to stop worst rights violations.