Archives

SRINAGAR, India, Nov 14 (AFP) - A respected Kashmiri Muslim separatist leader has written a letter to other separatist groups urging them to unite in their fight against Indian rule.

"Confusion among us is turning profitable for our opponents and is a major blockade in the way of a resolution of the Kashmir issue," wrote Shabir Shah, who heads the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).

"There is a need for broad-based unity to get the Kashmir issue resolved and to fight growing Indian repression."

Shah, who has spent more than 20 years in different jails for espousing Kashmir's secession from India, sent the letter to leaders of Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

Shah was suspended from the APHC in 1996 after he chose to meet with the then US ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, against the wishes of the APHC.

Shah and the APHC, which was formed in 1993, have been at loggerheads since the suspension.

But Shah told AFP: "I feel the movement in Kashmir is entering a final stage, and there is a need to put a united fight against the enemy.

"The APHC is present in Kashmir as a major united forum but it is not fulfilling the needs and aspirations arising out of the separatist struggle.

"But that does not mean that at this crucial stage we should come up with a new political platform. I wish to work towards making APHC stronger."

Shah is respected in Kashmir for his three-decade-long association with the separatist struggle.

But he again annoyed the APHC this year when he met India's new envoy on Kashmir in Srinagar and Delhi.

Shah said he was ready to bury the past, but with a condition.

"All the political groups comprising the Hurriyat Conference should suspend their individual programmes and work only as per the programmes of APHC," he suggested in his letter to the APHC leaders.

APHC chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said the issue would be discussed "fairly and seriously" by the executive council of the APHC.

"If people want to join APHC and strengthen it, we welcome them," he said. But he added that those who joined had to accept two things.

"They will have to follow the APHC constitution and organisational discipline," he said.

"We are in a decisive phase of our struggle and unity will be emphasised."

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Muslim militants in Kashmir, where the armed Islamic insurgency has claimed more than 35,000 lives since 1989.

Islamabad denies the charge but openly offers moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as the Kashmiris' just struggle for self-determination.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager