960421

India trying to hoodwink world

on Kashmir: Nasrullah

KARACHI: Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Chairman Kashmir Committee of the Parliament has said that India was misleading world opinion by holding fraudulent elections in occupied Kashmir, and had hatched a conspiracy to physically eliminate the top leadership of All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), representative organisation of 32 Kashmiri parties.

Addressing members of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) on 'the new initiatives on the solution of the problem of Kashmir' at the Institute premises here on Sunday, he said that the Indian conspiracy to physically eliminate the top leadership of the APHC was meant to deprive Kashmiri people of their leaders.

He said that, while Kashmiri leader Jalil Andrabi was brutally killed by Indian forces, rocket attacks were made at the houses of Kashmiri leaders like Ali Gilani, Shabbir Malik and Ghani Lone in Indian held Kashmir. He said, India was holding a farce election in occupied Kashmir where it had put up its own candidates who were now living in army camps and not doing any electioneering.

Nasrullah said that Pakistan's consistent stand has been on talks with India on the core issue of Kashmir. He said the situation in occupied Kashmir was extremely grave, following Indian moves to physically eliminate the top leaders of the Kashmiris.

While hailing the UN Secretary General's report of 1995, in which he has admitted again that Kashmir was a long standing dispute which should be resolved, Nasrullah said that, since it was an unfinished agenda of the partition of the sub-continent, the dispute should be solved in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

He pointed out that India had been desperately trying for the last seven years to hold elections in occupied Kashmir, but had failed to do so.

He said, in order to hoodwink world opinion, India was now trying to hold fraudulent polls in occupied Kashmir where it had deployed 600,000 troops, and recently sent another 50,000. He said, the polls in Indian held Kashmir would be farce as the APHC and other Kashmiri organisations had boycotted them.

He criticised the recent statement of former federal minister Dr. Mahbubul Haq in New Delhi saying that Azad Kashmir and occupied Kashmir should be handed over to the United Nations.

He said that the aim of visit of members of Kashmir Committee to Karachi was to raise funds for the rehabilitation of refugees who were forced from occupied Kashmir to come to Azad Kashmir in the wake of atrocities of Indian troops.

Answering a question, Nasrullah Khan said: " We share the concern of people of Karachi on the situation prevailing in this city. We are making sincere efforts to solve the Karachi problem".

Earlier, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, former prime minister, traced the background of the Kashmir dispute and said it had remained on the agenda of United Nations and Pakistan. He said, Kashmiris were deprived under a conspiracy to join Pakistan nearly 50 years ago.

He said, despite the fact that Kashmiris in Indian held Kashmir started an indigenous movement six years ago, New Delhi sent in six lakhs of its troops to crush the will of the Kashmiri people. But it had not yet succeeded, more than 50,000 Kashmiris embraced Shahadat while a similar number were missing. He said that deployment of 650,000 Indian troops in small area of occupied Kashmir was the largest ever concentration of troops in the world.

He said, Kashmir issue was in cold storage, and it was due to the efforts of Nasrullah Khan that it has been revived globally. "Due to Indian atrocities, Kashmiris were starving in occupied Kashmir, and the people of Pakistan must help them whole-heartedly" He was confident that Kashmiris would get their right of self-determination.

Hamid Nasir Chattha, Chief of PML(J), strongly opposed the third option on Kashmir and added this would negate the division of India. "It will be a historic anomaly if third option was exercised," he maintained.

He said that the unarmed Kashmiris were not getting any aid, and Pakistan was only providing them moral, political and diplomatic support. He said that Indian atrocities on innocent Kashmiri men, women and children in occupied Kashmir have been repeatedly highlighted by the international media.

Fatehyab Ali Khan, Chairman, PIIA, welcomed Nasrullah, Jatoi and Chattha. Later, he hosted a lunch at the institute premises for the chairman and members of the Kashmir Committee and the PIIA.-PPI