May 2, 2003	Friday	Safar 29, 1424

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MUZAFFARABAD, May 1: Kashmir’s largest and mainly indigenous fighter group, Hizbul Mujahideen, feels dismayed over its placing by the US State Department on a terrorist watch list, and has called upon the Bush administration to review its approach towards the freedom movement in held Kashmir and withdraw the “prejudiced decision.”

“The decision by the United States has dismayed us. It is unrealistic, partisan and contradictory to the ground realities,” Hizb supreme commander Syed Salahuddin told Dawn on Thursday.

He was contacted by this correspondent for his reaction on the State Department’s annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report for 2002, released on Wednesday, which adds 11 Islamic militant organizations to a new second level watch list.

These new groups include Hizbul Mujahideen, Jamiatul Mujahideen and Al Badar Mujahideen, which fight illegal Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The report praised Pakistan as a “vital partner in the global coalition against terrorism,” but raised concerns about a “terrorist threat posed to India by Pakistan-based Mujahideen.”

Dismissing the report, Mr Salahuddin said it was not India that faced terrorist threat but the people of Kashmir who were victims of India’s state sponsored terrorism.

“Hizb is an indigenous Kashmiri group and has an unblemished record. We have always struck against the Indian forces that are prolonging our subjugation. We have never done anything as could be called terrorism,” he said.

The Hizb supremo said that the Kashmiri Mujahideen groups were carrying on the armed struggle under a “code of conduct” that restricted them to target the military personnel and installations alone.

“It is unfortunate that the US has been influenced either by pressure or propaganda by the fanatic and repressive regime in New Delhi,” he said, adding that Washington’s unjustified tilt towards India was disappointing for the freedom-seeking people of Kashmir.

The report also carried veiled criticism for Pakistan over the issue of alleged incursions by the Mujahideen across the heavily militarized Line of Control in Kashmir.

“Extremist violence in Kashmir, meanwhile, fuelled by infiltration from Pakistan across the Line of Control, threatened to become a flash point for a wider India-Pakistan conflict during most of the year,” the report said.

Mr Salahuddin said the issue of so-called infiltrations across the dividing line was also India’s oft-repeated propaganda to mislead the international community and draw sympathies for it.

“The armed struggle in held Kashmir is legitimate and in line with the United Nations charter and Security Council resolutions on the disputed region,” he said.

“The UN charter grants right to every person across the globe to take up arms against the occupation forces. And what is going on in occupied Kashmir since 1989 is under the same right,” he said, adding, “fighting for one’s usurped rights was not terrorism, by any standard.”

The Hizb chief emphasized that the US should rather facilitate the holding of the UN-sponsored free, fair and impartial plebiscite in Kashmir as envisaged in the SC resolutions.

“Being the only superpower, the responsibility of the US in resolving conflicts that threaten the global peace is much more than others,” he said.

“We call upon the US administration not to support the position of a country (India) that has stained its hands with the blood of the innocent Kashmiris who demand nothing but implementation of a pledge India and the world community had made to them 56 years ago.”

The Hizb chief also called upon the US to withdraw its decision against the Kashmiri Mujahideen groups keeping in view the aspirations of the people of the divided state.

He, however, vowed that the State Department’s decision would not affect the activities of his group.