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archive: Pakistani Militants Vow to Continue Fight in Kashmir

Pakistani Militants Vow to Continue Fight in Kashmir

Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
July 8, 1999


    Title: Pakistani Militants Vow to Continue Fight in Kashmir
    Author: Pamela Constable
    Publication: Washington Post Foreign Service
    Date: July 8, 1999
    
    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 7-The leaders of 16 Islamic militant groups
    vowed today to fight to the "last drop of our blood" inside India's
    portion of the disputed territory of Kashmir, strongly denouncing
    Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for agreeing to ask the armed
    guerrillas to withdraw and dealing a blow to the government's hopes
    for ending its border war with India.
    
    At a lengthy news conference, the normally reclusive militant leaders
    said they still control 11 square miles of mountainous territory on
    the Indian side of the border dividing Kashmir and that they intend to
    remain there until September, when winter sets in. They denied
    receiving any direct support from the Pakistani army, as India has
    repeatedly claimed, and they said they had inflicted more than 700
    casualties on Indian forces over the past six weeks.
    
    "We will not even think of withdrawing. . . . We will continue to the
    last drop of our blood, until every holy inch of Kashmir has been
    liberated from Indian occupation," said Syed Salahuddin, leader of the
    United Jihad Council and chief spokesman for the rebel groups. "We
    will not allow an international conspiracy to hijack our movement."
    
    Sharif, who is due back here Thursday after hastily arranged visits to
    Washington and London, issued a joint statement with President Clinton
    over the weekend in which he essentially agreed to try to pull back
    the Pakistani-supported forces who infiltrated the remote highlands of
    Indian Kashmir in April and have been battling Indian troops,
    artillery and warplanes there since May.
    
    India and Pakistan have both claimed Kashmir as their own for half a
    century and have fought two border wars over the scenic Himalayan
    region. For the last decade, moreover, Kashmiri militants supported by
    Pakistan have waged a low-intensity guerrilla war inside Indian
    Kashmir, a heavily militarized region patrolled by several hundred
    thousand Indian troops.
    
    Sharif, who pledged this week to appeal to the rebels to withdraw, has
    come under heavy pressure from the United States and other foreign
    powers to call off the cross-border adventure, in part because of
    international concern that the conflict could escalate into a nuclear
    war. Both India and Pakistan successfully tested nuclear weapons last
    year.
    
    But in their unified display of defiance, the militants--known here as
    mujaheddin, or holy warriors--made clear that they feel betrayed by
    Sharif and have no intention of honoring his request. It has been
    widely reported that the groups are closely affiliated with Pakistani
    intelligence services and directly supported by Pakistani military
    forces; if so, their statements could signify an indirect challenge to
    Sharif by the country's security establishment.
    
    "This will obviously make it much more difficult for Sharif to make
    this Washington agreement domestically acceptable," said Rifaat
    Hussain, a political analyst at Quaid-I-Azam University. He noted that
    some major Islamic groups and military hard-liners have sharply
    criticized Sharif's agreement with Clinton, and that many Pakistanis
    feel their prime minister looked weak and undignified in seeking
    Washington's help. Pakistan's deeply indebted economy is dependent on
    aid and loans from the West.
    
    Aides to Sharif today attempted to play down the significance of the
    militants' declaration. They also characterized Sharif's mission to
    Washington as a resounding success because it succeeded in involving
    U.S. officials as mediators in the Kashmir issue, something India has
    tried hard to avoid.
    
    "We didn't start this uprising and we can't stop it," Mushahid
    Hussain, Pakistan's minister of information, said in an interview.
    "This is a legitimate, indigenous, independent movement of Kashmiris
    over which we have only limited leverage. We can apply friendly
    persuasion, but we can't switch them on and off at will."
    
    Asked about India's repeated contention that Pakistani troops are
    participating in the incursion, the information minister said the
    allegations were "lies and fabrications."
    
    American officials have said, however, that they agree with India's
    claims that Pakistani troops are involved in the operation, and
    analysts in both India and Pakistan have suggested that the militant
    groups would not be able to launch or sustain such an ambitious
    operation without help from the military.
    
    In their comments today, the militant leaders said about 1,000 of
    their forces, whom they described as mostly Kashmiri fighters along
    with a few Afghans, are well entrenched inside Indian Kashmir. They
    denied India's claim that its troops have achieved a series of
    important military victories over the past two weeks. They said that
    more than 700 Indian troops have been killed and that only 130 of
    their fighters have died; figures released by Indian authorities
    suggest the reverse.
    



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