MUZAFFARABAD Speakers at a conference on Kashmir held here on Thursday called for continuing the jihad in occupied Kashmir till attaining freedom from India and asked the government of Pakistan not to create hurdles for Kashmiri fighters who wanted to achieve this goal on their own.
“As long as Jammu and Kashmir is under Indian subjugation, jihad must continue... Pakistan should continue political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiris seeking freedom.
If Pakistani rulers cannot help Kashmiris, they should let the field open for the Kashmiri militants, instead of creating any obstacles in their way,” said a declaration adopted at the “Solidarity with Kashmir” conference.
The conference was addressed by United Jihad Council chairman Syed Salahuddin, former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul, AJK assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir and Jamaatud Dawa leader Abdur Rehman Makki.
Although the event was organised by the little known Tehrik Azadi-i-Jammu Kashmir, it was in effect a show of Jamaatud Dawa which has been maintaining a low profile in the region since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The declaration stressed that practical steps were needed to bring an end to Indian repression in Kashmir, instead of observing one-minute silence on the Kashmir Solidarity Day on Feb 5. It said that the ban on all Kashmiri militant groups should be lifted and the role of Azad Jammu Kashmir as the base camp of freedom struggle should be revived.
It said that proposals like “self-governance and demilitarisation” were not a substitute for the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and Pakistan should not budge from its principled demand of implementation of these resolutions.
Mr Salahuddin said that sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris were not meant for internal autonomy, division or trans-LoC trade, but for freedom of the occupied state.
He asserted that Kashmiris were not opposed to dialogue with India, but 131 rounds of talks held over the past six decades had produced nothing.
“Instead of begging the UN and world powers for Kashmir settlement, we should flex our muscles and revive the spirit of jihad which is bound to get the issue resolved,” he said.
Mr Salahuddin claimed that the armed struggle in Kashmir was nearing success in 2001 when Pervez Musharraf “stabbed the freedom movement in the back”.
The UJC chief rejected Indian allegations about involvement of Jamaatud Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Mumbai attacks and urged the Pakistan government to end the ban on JuD and release its leader Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
“He (Lakhvi) is our aide and an active member of the UJC. He has been behind bars for long, although no charges have been established against him,” he said.
Hamid Gul warned India that the jihad would not stop till it granted freedom to Kashmiris.
The AJK assembly speaker assured the gathering that the AJK government would neither accept nor become part of any “sell-out of Kashmir”.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.