MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 26: Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Amanullah Khan has welcomed the establishment of Kashmir committee by India expressing the hope that it will try to resolve this issue justly. However, he cautioned that no one should have any kind of expectations in this regard.

“Formation of Kashmir committee in India is a good omen. But we must keep in mind that Mr Ram Jethmalani is an Indian and a member of the BJP. Therefore we should not develop any false hopes,” he said at a news conference here at Central Press Club on Monday.

The JKLF chief was of the view that forthcoming polls to the occupied Kashmir’s legislative assembly were not an issue to be given much importance.

“Previous elections in held Kashmir did not affect the nature of the issue. Nor the upcoming one will do so,” he said.

He pointed out that the importance India attached to held Kashmir assembly was evident from the fate of the assembly’s resolution on the internal autonomy of the state. “The autonomy resolution passed by the held Kashmir assembly by two-thirds majority was thrown by Indian home minister in dustbin,” he recalled.

The JKLF leader, who is long time advocate of an independent Kashmir, said there were people on both sides of the state who blindly followed the policies of India and Pakistan. “But we have never followed Pakistan’s policy and we will not be doing so in future. We will, however, appreciate Islamabad’s right and criticize wrong steps.”

He said unlike India, Pakistan had never laid any false claim on Kashmir, which was an appreciable thing.

The JKLF chief said there was no doubt in the fact that non- Kashmiri groups had impaired indigenous character of the Kashmiris freedom struggle.

”Whenever I met the leaders of such groups I told them that I highly value their sacrifices, but these have not damaged and not benefited the freedom struggle,” he said.

Today, Mr Khan added, Pakistan itself had also come to the same conclusion. But it had gone too far (in taking action against such groups) “which we do not approve of.”

He said if the freedom struggle in Kashmir was promoted and advanced as Kashmiris’ own struggle for their “national freedom,” desired results could be achieved shortly. But, he warned, if it was advanced on the basis of “give and take,” Kashmiris would suffer irreparable loss.

Both India and Pakistan have made Kashmir a point of their ego and none of them would tolerate disintegration but would not quit a single inch of the divided state, he said. Under these circumstances, he said, it was essential that the issue be resolved without hurting the ego of both nations.

He said it was the bitter fact that neither wars nor parleys between the two sides could resolve the issue. Therefore intervention by a third power was needed for its settlement.

He said the issue should be resolved on the principle of unconditional and unlimited right to self-determination. In this regard he suggested that a committee comprising one each representative of the UN secretary-general, five permanent members of the Security Council, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement, European Parliament and Germany and Japan should be constituted for the resolution of Kashmir issue.

Kashmir should be united with a federal democratic government having friendly ties with India and Pakistan, both of which should also give guarantee of non-interference in the internal affairs of Kashmir, he said.

This arrangement should be for 15 years after which referendum should be held to ascertain the opinion of the people whether they wanted to continue to live as an independent nation or join India or Pakistan, he added.