POLITICS: Kashmiri Group Sees Hope in Bush Visit

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Feb 28 2006 (IPS) - As U.S. President George W. Bush visits India and Pakistan, a major Kashmiri pro-independence group says violence must end before negotiations can begin.

The call by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) is significant because it has long been regarded as a violent separatist group.

The JKLF call is important also because Bush is talking Kashmir through his visit to India and Pakistan. ”I will use my trip to urge the leadership to continue solving this issue with the idea that it can be solved,” Bush said in an interview on Pakistan television.

The Kashmir leaders have made it clear that violence in the name of jihad will not solve the problem.

”What some people are calling jihad is only adding to the problems and miseries of the Kashmiri people,” JKLF leader Dr Shabir Choudhry told IPS. ”It’s time they stopped creating trouble in Kashmir and for Kashmiris. We have had enough of this.”

What is going on in Kashmir is not jihad, the JKLF said in a press statement in London. ”They are using name of jihad to expand their personal agenda, and if these people are allowed to have their way then there will be no freedom and liberty for the people.”

The statement was signed by the JKLF leaders Dr Shabir Choudhry, Abbas Butt, Sarwar Hussain and Asim Mirza.

”You cannot have a dialogue when a gun is pointing at you,” they said. ”It has to end in order to give chance to the peace process.”

The JKLF wants independence for Kashmir and an end to what it calls occupation by both India and Pakistan.

”The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, we want India and Pakistan to leave,” Dr Choudhry told IPS. While the JKLF has struggled long against the Indian government in the past, ”we want Pakistan also to pack up their bags and go, and let people of these areas decide their destiny, which means the majority of people would like to become a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.” But the violence is hurting the cause of Kashmiri people, he said.

”We strongly condemn the commercialised aspect of the Kashmiri struggle,” the JKLF leaders said. ”Our struggle has been hijacked by people with vested interest. They want to impose their will on people, they want to spread communalism and hatred, and this will only add to the problems of the Kashmiri people.”

The leaders made it clear they want an end to violence on all sides. ”We don’t know how many people are killed by Indian army and how many people are killed by other actors for example, militants, cross- border shelling, cross-firing and by bombs thrown in populated areas.”

The Kashmir issue has been portrayed largely so far as a problem of Indian ‘occupation’. But the JKLF says Pakistani occupation of Kashmir has been neglected for a lack of independent media within Pakistani Kashmir.

”I think this is where Pakistanis have played very skilfully,” Dr Choudhry told IPS. ”They’ve managed to get Kashmiris to concentrate on that side of the state, to focus their attention on the Valley, the Indian side of Kashmir.”

”Groups like the JKLF and the International Kashmir Alliance have managed to point out that ”this is also a part of Jammu and Kashmir, this is also disputed,” Dr Choudhry said. ”The fact that there is no militancy going on does not mean it is not disputed, it does not mean we are happy living with Pakistan.”

The Bush visit is now of great significance, he said. ”Earlier he used to be reluctant to even mention Kashmir,” Dr Choudhry said. ”Now he is speaking of Kashmir very clearly. And it is good that he says that the wishes of the Kashmiri people should be taken into account and that the terrorist infrastructure in the region should be finished.”

Bush could play an important role ”behind the scenes,” he said. Once the Kashmir issue is resolved ”there can be peace and stability in South Asia.”

But the JKLF leaders say that ”bilateral talks could not produce the desired results no matter for how long both India and Pakistan keep on talking.”

The leaders said in their statement: ”India and Pakistan have to understand that issue of Jammu and Kashmir is not a territorial in nature. Issue essentially is about our identity, national self respect and future – we, as it stands, are not part of India or Pakistan; our future is yet to be determined.”

The itinerary of the Bush visit has not been announced for security reasons, but after talks in Pakistan Tuesday, he is expected in India later this week.