Increase font size Decrease font size Reset font size

Talks with India should be held only on Kashmir issue: JI chief

By Tariq Naqash 2015-10-28
MUZAFFARABAD: Jamaat-iIslami (JI) leader Sirajul Haq said on Tuesday that talks with India should be held only on the issue of Kashmir.

`We will not accept cricket diplomacy, exchange of cultural delegations and trade of potatoes and onions... This is the demand of the blood of slain Kashmiri people,` he said while addressing a public meeting on the premises of the district headquarters complex.

The gathering was held to observe the 69th anniversary of the invasion of Kashmir by India on October 27, 1947 on the basis of a controversial instrument of accession.

`We want peace but India is spoiling peace through the use of force, the JI chief said. He warned that Indian aggression along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary could lead to devastation in the region and urged the international community to take notice of it.

He said that the ideology and policies of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were disastrous notonly for the Kashmiri Muslims but also for other minority communities living in India.

`Mr Modi should bear in mind that he will have to face stiff resistance in response to repression... His policies can give birth to another Pakistan in India,` Mr Haq said.

He called upon the federal government to convene an all-party conference on Kashmir to declare that `we are united on the issue` The Leader of Opposition in Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Raja Farooq Haider, some AJK ministers and representatives of different political and religious parties also spoke on the occasion.

Later a rally was taken out by the participants ofthe gathering.

Activists of the Tehreek-iNaujawanan, an organisation headed by Abdullah Gul, son of the late Hamid Gul, staged a motor rally from Muzaffarabad to Chakothi to observe the anniversary of the Indian invasion of Kashmir. The participants were waving Pakistani flags and raising pro-freedom slogans.

In Mirpur, a rally was staged to condemn India`s perpetual denialof right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people and its unrelenting atrocities in the occupied territory.

Addressing the rally, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed accused the United Nations of following double standard on Kashmir. He said that the UN should play its due role in resolving the Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

On India-Pakistan trade, he said that Pakistan should carry out trade with India, but not at the cost of right of selfdetermination of the Kashmiri people.

Mr Majeed urged Islamabad to reject the offer of help by the Indian prime minister in the wake of Monday`s earthquake.

`We can accept death but not aid from a tyrant who has usurped the rights of Kashmiris,` he said.

Similar rallies and demonstrations were held in other parts of AJK where India`s illegal occupation of Kashmir and the reign of terror unleashed by its troops in the held territory were condemned by the participants.