JKLF General Council elects new executive body for UK.
Birmingham 24 May, 1999
The UK branch of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) held its 3-Year Convention on Sunday, 23 May, 1999, in the West Midlands town of Dudley, where the JKLF General Council elected a new executive body for the next three years. A former general secretary, Shabir Chaudhary was elected as the president and Azmat A Khan was re-elected as the General secretary for another term along with ten other main office bearers.
Over a hundred JKLF delegates from its UK branches met to renew their commitment for the independence movement and to continue with the struggle for re-unification of their motherland. Ten resolutions were passed at this historic convention. The organisation's general secretary presented a comprehensive report to the GC in the opening session followed by elections of the executive body. A senior JKLF leader from Srinagar, Ghulam Rasool Dar, took oath from the newly elected body for UK and Europe. Leaders of the Liberation Front and guest speakers debated the issues concerning the Kashmiri independence movement during their address in the 2nd session. A ten member Working Committee was also elected which together with executive members at branch level will elect the policy making body, the Central Committee, at it first meeting next month.
Following resolutions were passed at the Dudley Convention on 23 May, 1999
This Convention pays tribute to Kashmiri martyrs who have laid down their lives following the footsteps of Shaheed-Kashmir Maqbool Butt, and those thousands of prisoners who are languishing in Indian jails or within state jails. We salute all political and Mujahid leaders, Kashmiri intellectuals, lawyers, teachers, students, journalists and others in all walks of life including our mothers and sisters who, despite suppression and atrocities, have kept the freedom torch alight. We assure them that JKLF will not let them down and our members shall offer all sacrifices to achieve our cherished goal of independence.
This JKLF Convention expresses its full confidence in the leadership of chairman Mohammed Yasin Malik and his colleagues, and wishes to make it clear that the JKLF struggle is not based upon hatred for any neighboring country or for its people. Ours is a just struggle based on the principle of self-determinations to re-create an independent Jammu-Kashmir, where all people of all religions and class can live in peace and harmony.
The Kashmiri peoples movement is a national movement for freedom and those who wish to turn it into a religious war cannot claim to be true supporters of the Kashmiri people. We appeal to the Muslim world including Pakistan to extend their unconditional support to our movement on humanitarian basis. We also demand that the British government should play a more proactive role in bringing about a peaceful resolution of the issue, which remains its legal, moral and historical responsibility.
No part of Jammu-Kashmir belongs to any neighbouring country. This including 'Azad- Kashmir', Gilgit, Baltistan, Ladakh, Jammu and the Valley. We condemn all those forces which wish to restrict our right of self-determination to a choice for accession (between India and Pakistan) as this is neither conducive to the good of the movement nor helpful in build international support. The right of self-determination for the 13 million people of the state can only be exercised once all foreign occupation forces are completely withdrawn. Those are also the views of the APHC and this convention fully endorses those views.
We condemn Indian claims on Azad Kashmir and the frequent attacks on its population near the line of control. We call for the removal of the artificial 'line-of-control' so that state subjects can freely move about within their own country. We demand that all visa restrictions for Kashmiri leaders should be lifted so that they are able to visit all parts of the state to hold open discussions and Indian and Pakistani governments must seek a dialogue with Kashmiri leadership and must set a time table to undertake trilateral dialogue in order to look for ways to resolve the Kashmir issue amicably instead of carrying on with the futile exercise of bilateral negotiations.
Any 'elections' held in any part of the state under coercion or by any puppet regime cannot be accepted as democratic and those elected cannot be considered as representative of our people. We reject all such 'election' attempts and reiterate that if any one wants to test the will of Kashmiris a referendum should be held under neutral international supervision.
This JKLF Convention condemns the continued onslaught of innocent civilians under the veil of search operations and sympathises with the plight of thousands of Kashmiris who have had to flee their homes to take refuge either in Azad Kashmir or elsewhere outside the state and calls for international relief organisations to come to their aid and help them return to their homes.
We demand that both This Convention condemns the recent attack on JKLF offices in Srinagar and the continued harassment of its leaders and the extra-judicial killing of prominent personalities by Indian armed agencies or by their armed agents and warns that the Indian government will be held responsible if any of the Kashmiri leaders or their families are harmed in any way.
The Convention expresses concern at the continued detention of the two Kashmiri students, Mohammed Riaz Qayyum Raja in UK, both of whom have had their prison terms extended by 10 years by the British Home Secretary without any justification. We condemn Pakistan government for not taking up the issue of these two Kashmiris with the UK government as both were Pakistani passport holders.
We condemn the banning order made against a book Shahoor-e-Farda containing Maqbool Butt's letter by the interior ministry of Pakistan and demand that the order should be lifted immediately.
END.