ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has said that Lashkar-i-Taiba was not a Kashmiri organization as mentioned by US President George W. Bush after he ordered the freezing of its assets.

In a letter faxed and emailed to the American president, with a copy to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the JKLF chairman, Amanullah Khan, said the Kashmiris were surprised to hear him say that Lashkar-i-Taiba was a Kashmiri-based terrorist organization which it was not.

The letter said India itself had forced the Kashmiris to resort to the armed freedom struggle since their 40-year long peaceful movement had failed to persuade New Delhi to fulfil its declarations, made on national and international level to let Kashmiris exercise their inherent, inalienable and nationally- recognized right to self-determination.

The letter said: “Now that the world had started realizing the urgency of a solution of the issue, the Kashmiris too wanted a peaceful solution based on their aspirations.”

The letter said keeping in view the basics of the issue as well as the past experience and the prevailing ground realities, the only peaceful, practicable and permanent solution of the issue was that the divided Jammu and Kashmir state be re-united under international supervision.

“It should be made an independent country with a democratic, federal and secular system of government, having friendly relations with both India and Pakistan,” the letter said.

It appealed to President Bush to take steps conducive to implementation of the suggested solution of the Kashmir issue.