JKLF Working Committee meeting in Birmingham warns against division of Kashmir

Birmingham, 11 July, 1999

Working Committee members of the UK body of the JKLF who met in Birmingham over the weekend have called of Kashmiri unity against any possible moves to turn the cease-fire line, which currently divides Kashmir into an international border. They warned against erecting a 'Burlin Wall' in Kashmir and said that any attempts to divide Jammu-Kashmir by force on a permanent basis will be met with stiff resistance.

The meeting chaired by the newly elected president, Shabir Choudhary, called for the world community to pay due attention to the plight of millions of Kashmiris who were suffering in two parts of Kashmir because of the forced division of the state and because of the armed forces of India and Pakistan fighting in Kashmir.

Speaking at the meeting a visiting leader of the Kashmiri APHC, Yousaf Naseem, paid rich tribute the vailient struggle of the JKLF cadre and said that time would come when the dream for an independent homeland will be realised. He called for unity amongst all resistance forces in Kashmir and said that the whole nation depended on the good sense of the leadership to remain united in this critical hour to defeat enemy designs. In answer to a question from the floor, he said that Kashmiris needed the good will and support of the people of Pakistan but could not be expected to take orders from anyone. 'We are and shall remain the masters of our destiny', he said.

Earlier JKLF members expressed deep concerns over the prevailing situation on the so-called 'LoC' and vowed to fight on if Kashmiri leadship was continued to be ignored in bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan.

The meeting unanimously declared that the real question in Kashmir was the inherent and inalienable right of the people of Jammu-Kashmiri to determine their future, which could be resolved by outside mediation but not suppressed through the barrel of the gun.

Speaking at the JKLF meeting the organisation's general secetary Azmat Khan, warned members of an international conspiracy of dividing J&K between India and Pakistan and said that both Indian and Pakistani leaders were working under cover to suppress the Kashmiri peoples movement in order to perpetuate their hold on part of Kashmir under its control. "India is using brutal force and Pakistan is engaged in diplomatic warfare to retain the territory under its control", He claimed, "it is time our people on both side of the divide stood up and defeated the strategy of divide and rule".

The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front leaders forged a new strategy for their diplomatic offensive and impressed upon its members to double their efforts to win the propaganda war. JKLF members paid tribute to Kashmiri freedom fighter including those trapped in Kargil hill and said that their supreme sacrifices shall not be allowed to go in vein. JKLF meeting condemned the recent arrest of their chairman Yasin Malik and his deputy Javed Mir and other APHC leader in Poonch district. The JKLF Working Committee also elected a new13 member Central Committee, which is to act as its supreme decision making body for UK and Europe.