JKLF calls for ‘an independent Kashmir’

Staff Report

LAHORE: Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Punjab) here on Tuesday called for “an independent Kashmir”, saying his proposal would be in the best interest of Kashmir, India and Pakistan.

Amanullha Khan, the Front leader, told reporters at the party’s secretariat that since the Kashmiris were a third party to the long-standing dispute, public opinion there “ought to be given top priority before the world community”.

But the party leader lambasted Pakistan and India for playing politics with Kashmir. “Pakistan has no right to impose its policies on Kashmir. It’s about time that the people from both sides of Kashmir decided their own fate. Besides the Indian repression of the Kashmiris, the Pakistani intelligence agencies have planned to sabotage the Kashmiri movement by trying to unite the two sides.”

Mr Khan then went on to argue that Kashmir was an international issue, and that the Kashmiri people and the leadership wanted to live in an independent Kashmir. He also launched an attack on the western states, accusing them of having robbed the Kashmiris of their right to self-determination.

“As many as 80,000 Kashmiris have died for their homeland. The August 1948 Resolution on Kashmir was due to the sole effort of Quaid-e-Azam, but soon after his death the Pakistani governments have tried to cash in on the crisis,” he added.

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