August 02, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 1: “The so-called peace process initiated by President Pervez Musharraf to normalise Pakistan’s relations with India caused irreparable damage to the cause of Kashmir,” Abdul Rasheed Turabi, chief of the Azad Kashmir chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami, told a press conference at the JI office here on Friday.

Describing terms of the peace process as detrimental to the Kashmiri people’s principled stand on the issue, he said thatPakistan should reconsider its changed policy on Kashmir in view of India’s intransigent attitude, adding that instead of pursuing the peace process, Islamabad should mobilise public opinion “to expose the Indian oppression unleashed on the unarmed and peaceful Kashmiris.”

Mr Turabi said that the freedom movement in Kashmir was linked with the survival of Pakistan. “A link between the Kashmir issue and the trouble along Pakistan’s western border cannot be ruled out,” he said.

He pointed out that the reign of terror let loose by the Indian security forces on the Kashmiri people had failed to crush the freedom movement although countless Kashmiri fighters had been killed over the past 20 years of fighting.

The JI leader said that India was making desperate attempts to turn the valley into its cantonment and annex the Kashmir land through the Indian Shrine Board.

However, the Hurriyet Conference, in response to Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gillani’s call, posed a stiff resistance.

He said India was using radical parties and groups like Shiv Sena, Bhartia Janta Party and terrorists to crush the freedom movement. Mosques and Muslims’ houses were being attacked in the occupied territories, he added.