Title: Clerics espouse
jehad to settle Kashmir row
Author:
Publications: The Navhind
Times, Panaji, Goa
Date: April 28, 2000
Muridke (Pakistan), April
27, 2000 (AP) : Hundreds of Islamic clerics warned Pakistan's military
rulers today against peace talks with India saying jehad or holy war was
the only way to settle the Kashmir dispute.
They also warned the
Army, which seized power from Pakistan's civilian government
last October, to resist demands from the US to shut down some of the more
militant Islamic groups headquartered here.
The leaders of these
groups, like Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, were among an estimated 1,200 clerics
attending a one-day meeting held to support jehad.
The meeting, organized
by Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of the militant groups active in Jammu and Kashmir,
was attended by the clerics from a village in Muridke, 25 km west of the
Punjab provincial capital of Lahore.
"War is clear.
Instead of diplomacy and holding talks we should resist and tell the nation
that jehad is the only solution to retrieve Kashmir," said Maulana Sibgatullah
Shirwani, the speaker who opened the conference.
Lashkar-e-Toiba said
groups active in Jammu and Kashmir should be helped by the government,
not attacked.
"We are trying to make
our leaders realize that they should not succumb to American pressure to
put pressure on freedom fighters by trying to ban their organization" said
Yahya Mujahed, a leader of Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Meanwhile Pakistan today
said that New Delhi and Islamabad should work toward reducing tensions
along the line of control (LoC) and warned that if it was not done it could
lead to a full-fledged war between the two countries.
We have had experiences
in the past that disproportionate reactions started a cycle of escalation
ending in war neither side wanted. Therefore, the wise thing to do
is to arrest the escalation of tensions along the LoC, the Pakistan Foreign
Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, said in an interview to American television
network CNN.
He said that the situation
is now much more dangerous than it ever was.
"I think we should recognize
that the nuclearization, the word nuclearisation of South Asia has greatly
aggravated the dangers that existed before.
Reiterating Pakistan's
offer to resume dialogue with India, tension, he said "there could be contacts
between the commanders of both sides so that they talk to each other rather
than respond to bullets by bullets.
Admitting that there
is traffic across the LoC, he, however, said the people who cross LoC are
motivated by various considerations.
The question to ask is,
is such traffic sponsored by the government. Government of Pakistan has
to work on the basis of the laws of the country. Political activity, collection
of funds is not against the law. What is against the law is violation
of the line of control, he said.
Meanwhile India today
ruled out any third party mediation in Kashmir whether as facilitator,
mediator or in the form of intervention.
The country's stand on
the issue was made clear by the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant
Singh, who accused Pakistan of interrupting the peace process and said
it was for Islamabad to recreate the condition for resumption of dialogue
with India.
Deputing for an indisposed
Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the External Affairs Minister
was replying in the Rajya Sabha to the motion of thanks on the President's
address in his capacity as leader of the House.
"I want to make it clear
there can be no third party intervention in Kashmir by any means either
as facilitator, mediator or in the form of intervention," Mr. Singh
said.
He declared that Kashmir
was not the core issue between India and Pakistan, instead Kashmir is at
the core of Indian nationhood.
"We are committed that
beauty and vividity of Kashmir is not allowed to suffer," he said, telling
Pakistan that essential ingredients for resumption of dialogue were that
Islamabad abjure violence, stop cross-border terrorism and return to bilateralism.
Mr. Singh said the government
was reassessing the situation after Kargil, Kandahar and military coup
in Pakistan.
"We have no ill-will
or enmity towards the people of Pakistan. We were the initiators
of the dialogue which was interrupted by Pakistan and the onus is now on
Islamabad to restore the right condition for talks," he added.
