International

U.K. Kashmiri groups merge

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON FEB. 26. Seven U.K.-based Kashmiri groups, including the JKLF and the JKNLF, have merged and formed a broader political platform, the Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance, to give greater coherence to their campaign for a solution of the Kashmir dispute on the basis of the wishes of the people of the State.

``There cannot be any durable solution to Kashmir issue without the participation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in any future negotiations,'' the alliance leaders said in their first joint statement here on Tuesday.

The alliance, comprising the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, the Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front, the Kashmir Freedom Movement, the Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front, the Jammu Kashmir People's National Party, the Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party and the Kashmir Liberation Organisation, was described as a "new nationalist political forum'' which would oppose attempts both in India and Pakistan to use the Kashmir issue for political purposes. It would campaign for "reunification'' of the "divided State'', and for Kashmiri voices to be heard in any discussion on its future.

``The leadership in both the countries (India and Pakistan) must not use the Kashmir issue for their political survival,'' the statement said urging an end to terrorist violence in the State.

Its broad objective, the statement said, would be to work for the restoration of Kashmir's "democratic and pluralistic'' character, and to achieve this it demanded immediate cessation of violence, "demilitarisation'' of the region, resettlement of refugees including Kashmiri pundits, and freedom for people to travel across the line of control.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Saudi initiative gaining momentum
• U.N., Iraq to discuss return of inspectors
• Osama may have been duped: report
• Annan warns against attack on Iraq
• Apathy looms large over French poll
• Pearl case: U.S. seeks extradition of all suspects
• 'Pearl kidnappers had contacts with India'
• Bush puts India, Pak. in drug trafficking list
• Sectarian terrorism claim 9 at mosque
• Omar Sheikh extradition: U.S. may invoke 1931 treaty
• U.K. Kashmiri groups merge

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu