-
- SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - India and Pakistan could wage nuclear war
over the disputed territory of Kashmir, the leader of the separatists in
Indian-controlled Kashmir said. ``The situation is going from bad to worse...Kashmir
is the root cause of the tension between India and Pakistan. If the problem
is not solved both the countries could wage nuclear war,'' Syed Ali Shah
Geelani said in an interview late on Thursday. Geelani is chairman of the
All Parties Hurriyat (freedom) Conference, an umbrella grouping of 14 separatist
parties. The bearded, 68-year-old Geelani, wearing a flowing white robe,
spoke at his home in a suburb of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar of the
``right path'' of secession from India. He called the Moslem militants
who have waged a fierce eight-year revolt against Indian security forces
in the Kashmir valley ``freedom fighters.'' ``Peaceful means have not worked.
We do not call the militants' activities violence. It is violence by the
Indian side. The militants are fighting for a just and noble cause.'' Indian
and Pakistani troops have over the past week exchanged artillery fire across
a ``line of control'' marking the point at which in 1948 they stopped fighting
in their first war over Kashmir. During the interview, Geelani repeatedly
referred to a United Nations Security Council 1948 resolution asking both
countries to withdraw their troops and allow Kashmiris to decide in a plebiscite
on whether to accede to Pakistan or India ``I assure you that the majority
of the Kashmiris will accede to Pakistan,'' the separatist leader told
Reuters. ``As far as U.N. resolutions are concerned there are only two
options -- India or Pakistan. If the resolutions are implemented, we will
persuade those Kashmiris who want the third option, of independence, to
choose Pakistan.''
-
- He said Indian authorities' assertion
that the back of the revolt in the Kashmir Valley had been broken was wrong.
``They are mistaken, because this movement is not based only on the militants.
This is a mass movement.'' India had to agree that Kashmir was disputed
territory, Geelani said. ``India's stand on Kashmir is extremely unrealistic,
rigid and influenced by the arrogance of power, expansionism and imperialism.''
Asked if the average Kashmiri really cared about which sovereignty he belonged
to after a half-century under either Indian or Pakistani control, Geelani
said: ``These questions are being put only to create confusion and diversion.
``If we are given the chance to decide our future, at that moment we will
decide.'' Asked why Geelani's own Jamaat-e-Islami party had not fought
on the platform of a plebiscite in the state's September 1996 election
that ended si x years of direct federal rule, he replied: ``This was not
an election. This was a military operation. If you wanted to see who is
the real representative of the people the election should have been conducted
under the auspices of the United Nations. ``We have had 50 years' experience
of Indian elections. We would never say there will be a free and fair election
under Indian administration. The question does not arise.'' Geelani said
the Hurriyat Conference was not allowed to hold public meetings. His passport
was seized in 1981 and he had been imprisoned for 10 years at various points
since 1962. India has deployed about 300,000 army and paramilitary troops
in Jammu and Kashmir. ``There are only two ways -- either we surrender
before the might of India, or we continue this movement until we achieve
our goal or perish. We will not surrender. We will go on until our last
breath, until our last drop of blood.''
-
- Indian authorities have begun to arm
mainly Hindu Village Defence Committees in the state's Jammu region, where
militants have recently stepped up a series of killings of Hindus. ``The
Moslems are feeling insecure in these areas, so we have demanded that no
civilians must be armed,'' Geelani said. But asked whether the exodus of
about 200,000 Hindus from the predominantly Moslem Kashmir Valley amounted
to some sort of ethnic cleansing, he said the militants had targeted Moslems
as much as Hindus. ``The people of the valley will welcome the Hindus if
they come back. There is no communal tension here. But at this moment,
the government is not taking any interest in bringing them back.''
|
