September 25, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 12, 1428

MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 24: United Jihad Council chairman Syed Salahuddin has strongly reacted against India’s decision to open the disputed Siachen glacier for tourism and asked the Pakistani leadership to give a befitting reply.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he termed the India-UK joint military exercises in Kargil-Ladakh a clear violation of international laws.

Mr Salahuddin said that Siachin was part of Jammu and Kashmir and for 37 years after sub-continent’s partition it remained under the administrative control of Pakistan.

India occupied the glacier after secretly moving in its troops in April 1984 and now by opening it to tourists after 24 years it wanted to mislead the international community into believing that the glacier was its integral part, he added.

India’s aggressive designs should serve as an eye opener for Pakistan’s leadership, particularly the military leadership that had been holding fruitless rounds of talks and meaningless CBMs with New Delhi, he said.

Mr Salahuddin said the Pakistani leadership had not only showed unilateral, unnecessary and damaging flexibility to India but also demonstrated apologetic and cowardly attitude, which encouraged the rival country to trample international laws in order to legitimise its illegal occupation of Kashmir.

He said that India had fenced the 720km long Line of Control and installed sensors to restrict free movement.

Mr Salahuddin reiterated that Siachen was a disputed territory and in such an area any kind of military or non-military exercises, including sports or tourism amounted to infringement of international laws and rules.

He said India’s latest action also contravened the 1949 agreement between India and Pakistan made in Karachi.

He urged the Pakistani leadership to adopt a “vigorous and courageous” policy to give a befitting reply to Indian move.