October 3, 2002	Thursday	Rajab 25, 1423

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ISLAMABAD Oct 2: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Pakistan chapter, said on Wednesday that the third phase of sham polls in occupied Kashmir had also failed.

APHC leaders Syed Yusuf Nasim, Prof Ghulam Mohammad Safi and Ashraf Sarraf told a news conference that even the 10 per cent turnout shown to the world was made possible by the Indian troops who had dragged the people out of their houses and coerced them to cast their votes.

Prof Safi said that while Pakistan recognized that the Jammu and Kashmir was a disputed territory whose fate had to be decided through an impartial plebiscite, India continued to claim that the Valley was its integral part.

He welcomed the Chinese ambassador’s statement that pressure should be put on India and not Pakistan for an early solution of the Kashmir dispute.

The APHC leader said that more than 80pc population of held Kashmir wanted freedom from the Indian occupation and their boycott of the elections was a proof of that.

Mr Sarraf said that attaching the Kashmir issue with terrorism was an attempt to hoodwinking the world opinion, for neither the armed struggle by the Kashmiri youth could be equal to terrorism nor was it an issue of infiltration.

He called upon the international community to realize that the Kashmir freedom movement was an indigenous one.