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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