January 21, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 01, 1428

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MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 20: An alliance of Kashmiri militant groups have rejected the call of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to give up armed struggle to pave way for fruitful negotiations on Kashmir issue.

“Militant leaders have been shocked by the baseless and uncalled for statement of Mirwaiz and his colleagues who are ignorant of the background and realities of Kashmir issue,” said a spokesman for the United Jihad Council (UJC) in a statement here on Saturday.

“The statement of Mirwaiz may please some Western circles and Indian leaders, but it cannot change the ground realities,” he added.

Militant leaders, he said, had made it clear time and again that only a “strongly coordinated state-wide” armed struggle, enjoying the patronage of sincere, robust and representative (political) leadership, could take the freedom movement to its logical end.

“A freedom movement can weaken due to any temporary defeat, it can also grow longer than the anticipated time but it can never die down unless the freedom seekers surrender themselves before tyrants out of spinelessness,” the spokesman said.

He also rejected the reported statement of Mirwaiz that UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir had become redundant and said people saying such things appeared to have forgotten the fact that the resolutions made Pakistan a party to the Kashmir dispute.

The spokesman said that the people of Kashmir had taken up arms against their will after failure of their peaceful political and diplomatic struggle spanning over 42 years.

“If Mirwaiz and other leaders of his like have become tired, disenchanted or hopeless about the future of freedom struggle due to adverse circumstances, we suggest them to sit back in their homes to lead a life of comfort. But they should not teach the lesson of cowardice and hopelessness to the caravan of freedom seekers,” he said.