JKLF CRITICAL OF OIC RESERVATIONS ON KASHMIR

The UK-Europe chapter of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front have criticised the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Contact group on Jammu-Kashmir for failing to offer clear cut support to the Kashmiris struggling for self-determination which today adopted a resolution expressing "concern" over what it called "gross and systematic human rights violations" in the state, but there was no condemnation of India's half a million troops which are the main perpetrators of the those violations.

JKLF secretary general Azmat A Khan, who had earlier written to the OIC secretary General Azzedin Laraki calling for his intervention for the release of JKLF leaders from Indian prisons said that while the resolution condemned the gross and systematic human rights violations which cause suffering of the Kashmiri people and the consequent tension in the region but there was no mention of Kashmiri peoples struggle for freedom and their right to self-determination was not supported in clear terms.

He said that the heads of states and governments of Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, Niger and Saudi Arabia attended the meeting of the group chaired by Turkish President Suleman Demiral also failed to take note of the plight of thousands of Kashmiri prisoners languishing in Indian jails since 1990 and the more recent wave custodial killings and torture of prisoners in the occupied area. He said that Kashmiri leaders in occupied Kashmir, including top leaders of the JKLF, were intermittently imprisoned and the Indian government barred a top APHC delegation from participation in the conference.

The JKLF is critical of the resolution which made no mention of any support from the OIC for the Kashmiri struggles but reaffirmed the commitment of OIC to promote a just and peaceful solution to the Jammu-Kashmir dispute in accordance with the "UN resolutions", which, it maintains, only portrays the issue as a territorial dispute and a cause of tension between India and Pakistan.

Mr Khan said that instead of putting any direct pressure on India and Pakistan to allow the Kashmiris to exercise their right to self-determination or even to allow Kashmiri participation in the ongoing India-Pakistan dialogue the resolution simply reaffirmed "all OIC summit and Ministerial declarations and resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir" extending support for bilateral dialogue to promote peace, rapprochement and economic development in South Asia, which he said was rather disappointing from Kashmiri view point. ENDS