MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 22: Kashmir’s largest and mainly indigenous freedom fighter group, Hizbul Mujahideen, on Tuesday rejected the idea of conversion of the Line of Control (LoC) into permanent border between India and Pakistan.
“People of Kashmir have not sacrificed their lives, properties and honour for the conversion of the bloody line into permanent border,” Hizb’s supreme commander, Syed Salahuddin, said in a statement.
The statement came in the wake of remarks by occupied Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah that the only solution to India and Pakistan’s bitter dispute over Kashmir was to convert the LoC into permanent border.
“The ultimate solution to the Kashmir problem is to accept the LoC as the border,” Mr Abdullah was quoted by a news agency as telling a seminar in New Delhi on Sunday.
“Indian and Pakistani leaders had verbally agreed to convert the LoC into an international border at a meeting in Simla in 1972, but the move had never been implemented,” the held Kashmir CM had said.
But the Hizbul Mujahideen supremo said the suggestion was “ridiculous and unacceptable to Kashmiris.”
“The Line of Control is actually the cease-fire line and the Kashmiris have never accepted it because it has divided parents from children and sisters from brothers for more than half a century.”
“We did not offer about 80,000 precious lives to materialize the suggestion of Mr Abdullah and other traitors of his kind,” he said.
“If someone has forgotten, we again remind that Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute whose solution lies in implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions.”
Mr Salahuddin said the Kashmiris had started the armed struggle in accordance with the UN charter for the holding of the plebiscite enshrined in the UN resolutions.
“The LoC has no sanctity for any Kashmiri. Our struggle is aimed at evicting the occupation forces and removing this bloody line so that the divided families are reunited,” he said.
LINK WITH ATTACK DENIED: The Mutahidda Jihad Council (MJC) has denied any link with Tuesday’s attack on the American Center in Kolkata.
“None of the groups fighting for freedom of Kashmir has any connection with this incident. We repeat that we are against attacks on civilian installations and public places,” an MJC spokesman said here.
The Mujahideen groups condemn this act and believe it has been staged by the Indian agencies to malign the Muslim freedom fighters, he said.
Referring to the attacks on held Kashmir assembly and the Indian parliament and massacres in the Valley, he said those incidents suggested that Indian government was out to “defame the Muslims and divert the anger of the world in post Sept 11 situation towards them.”
“India is desperately trying to mislead the international community regarding the freedom struggle in Kashmir and has been staging ghastly incidents one after the other to get it dubbed as a terrorist movement,” he said.
The spokesman said it was unfortunate that the United States had reservations against the Muslims, and India was trying to strengthen those with staged incidents.
“Kashmiris are not terrorists. They are engaged in a legitimate struggle for a right which has been pledged to them by the United Nations,” he said.
The Harkatul Jihad-i-Islami, which India said had made a telephone call to claim the responsibility of the attack, rejected the allegation, when contacted by Dawn.
“We have no connection with this incident. Nor any of our fighters has made any telephone call, being attributed to us by the Indian government,” a spokesman for the group said. “It is a concocted claim on part of the Indian government,” he said.
About the attack, he said either it was the work of Indian agencies or of any of the groups fighting for freedom from New Delhi’s rule in different parts of India.