MUZAFFARABAD, April 21: Leaders of militant groups fighting against the Indian rule in occupied Kashmir have criticised President Pervez Musharraf’s policies and vowed to continue their fight to end their subjugation.

Addressing the ‘Azm-i-Jihad conference’ here on Monday, leaders of the United Jihad Council and some other politicians also criticised the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government for “welcoming killers of the Kashmiri people”.

The council chairman, Syed Salahuddin, said that Kashmiri fighters wanted to tell the decision-makers and the political and religious leadership in Pakistan – and also Indian rulers – that they would not relent until Kashmir was ‘liberated’.

“People … must not forget that we had waged a peaceful political struggle for liberation for 42 years. But after its utter failure, we were compelled to take up arms,” he said.

Mr Salahuddin reiterated that Kashmiri fighters were “ready to lay down their arms if India acknowledged that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and agrees to settle the dispute through meaningful tripartite talks”.

Criticising the Musharraf government for offering “too many concessions to India”, he claimed that Kashmir had “never been the core issue” in Pakistan-India talks over the past few years.

According to him, Kashmiris would not accept any formula short of ‘complete liberation’.

“Division, status-quo, internal autonomy or cross-border trade are unacceptable,” he said, adding that militants were not opposed to trans-LoC travel, but they would not allow anyone to use it to weaken the freedom movement.

He stressed the need for “Kashmir-centric and target-oriented” talks with India and criticised Pakistani politicians for suggesting that settlement of the dispute should be left for the next generations. “This movement cannot be postponed even for a single day.”

He said: “We are not opposed to talks but the process should respect the aspirations of Kashmiri people … We will endorse the talks if they are held in the light of our conditions.”

Tehreek-i-Kashmir convener Ghulam Mohammad Safi criticised the AJK government for what he called “toeing the line of Pakistani rulers”.

“You should … call a spade a spade. And … refrain from according red carpet reception to people whose hands are stained with the blood of Kashmiri people, whether it is Omar Abdullah or Mehbooba Mufti,” he said.

APHC convener Syed Yusuf Nasim said Pakistani and Kashmiri leaders “may receive Indians but not Kashmiris who are responsible for killing their compatriots”.

Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Amir of the proscribed Lashkar-i-Taiba, cited instances from the Islamic history and said that freedom movements could take longer than expected and the Kashmiris should not be disheartened after “just 19 years of struggle”.

Sheikh Jamilur Rehman of Tehrikul Mujahideen, ‘General’ Abdullah of the Jamiatul Mujahideen, Attiqur Rehman of the Harkatul Mujahideen, Farooq Qureshi of Al Bar Mujahideen, Masood Sarfraz of Hizb-i-Islami, Uzair Ghizali of the Pasban-i-Hurriyat, Sheikh Aqeelur Rehman of the Jamaat-i-Islami, refugee leaders Raja Izhar Khan, Yousaf Butt and Amjad Khan also addressed the conference.