May 15, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 14: Freedom fighters are getting training inside occupied Kashmir and there has never been any training camp in Azad Kashmir.

This was stated by Syed Salahuddin, the commander-in-chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, in an interview to a Japanese news agency on Wednesday.

Salahuddin said there were mobile training camps as geography of the occupied Kashmir, its forests and mountains provided very suitable conditions for guerrilla warfare. Hundreds of such camps have been operating in the occupied valley for the past many years, he added.

On the question of infiltration from Pakistani side of Kashmir, the Hizb commander said there were over 2.5 million people living in Azad Kashmir, who had migrated from the held Kashmir due to Indian “catch and kill operation, suppression and oppression”. Thousands of families have been divided and, therefore, to meet one another and to cross the border for this purpose was a natural process, he said.

Salahuddin said crossing the ceasefire line was the basic right of Kashmiris, enshrined in the UN Charter and the resolution, and it would continue with the ongoing freedom struggle and no one could check it.

“Neither it is in control of Musharraf nor is it in India’s control. There is one state which has been divided into two parts through a ceasefire line,” Salahuddin said. Moreover, he said, Kashmiris had never accepted this line as a border right from the day one. When there is no border, what is the meaning of cross-border? he queried.