Quest for a peaceful and democratic solution of the Kashmir issue
London 23 October 2014: In a statement issued here today Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front- JKLF- has called on the world community to support the forcibly divided 20 million Kashmiris to achieve their inherent, inalienable, unfettered, pledged and internationally recognised right to self-determination.Meanwhile the JKLF statement coincides with the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to the Siachen Glacier ahead of visiting flood affected Srinagar. JKLF’s head of Diplomatic Bureau Prof Zafar Khan added that instead of acting to alleviate suffering of close to two million Kashmiris devastated by worst floods in living memory, the Indian Prime Minister chose to reinforce India’s customary intransigence by the symbolic visit to Indian troops in Siachen. Zafar Khan accused Mr Modi of electioneering in Kashmir at a time when the masses require help and assistance to rebuild their devastated lives on war footing basis. This help and assistance by all accounts appears absent or extremely slow in coming.
Recently the Diplomatic Bureau of the JKLF wrote to around 200 governments as part of its active engagement with the international community on the ‘quest for a peaceful and democratic solution of the long standing Kashmir issue. It has urged these governments to extend full political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris’ quest for freedom, justice and democracy and up hold the Kashmiris’ right to choose a political future status of a reunified Kashmir that is consistent with their fundamental human and political rights.
The JKLF has called on these governments to exert and assert their powerful voices at all international fora and also to bilaterally intercede with India and Pakistan for the noble cause of achieving peace in the subcontinent and long overdue freedom and justice for the Kashmiris.
The JKLF has reminded these governments that the Kashmir issue should not be seen as a dispute merely between India and Pakistan as over the years it has quite erroneously come to be seen and as a consequence of which 20 million Kashmiris across both sides of the Line of Control-LoC- have been rendered invisible in this Indo- Pakistan dimension over the issue.
The JKLF has strongly reiterated that despite their claims and counter claims, and their entrenched positions, both India and Pakistan, and particularly despite Indian intransigence, the solution of the issue remained vested in the democratic and unfettered political will of 20 million Kashmiris, and that this democratic right of Kashmiris has not only been recognised by the United Nations but also by India itself. JKLF has thus called upon the world community to take India to task since she has blatantly reneged on commitments and pledges made to the international community and also given to the Kashmiris.
The JKLF has reminded these governments that Kashmir is one of the most militarised regions of the world and that India alone has well in excess of half a million regular military personnel deployed in the territory that are backed up by tens of thousands of paramilitary forces which are stationed in urban and rural areas of Indian occupied part of Kashmir.
Pakistan too, states the JKLF communication to these governments, has heavy deployment of its troops on her side of the LoC. This eye-ball to eye-ball deployment of huge number of forces argues the JKLF, by both countries antagonistic to each other has made it impossible for ordinary Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC to lead a normal life. They face daily dangers to life, limb and property as flare ups between the opposing forces are a daily occurrence- as it is the case since 1 October 2014 along the entire LoC. JKLF argues that In the absence of a viable and just solution of the Kashmir issue and India and Pakistan being nuclear armed powers and having fought a number of wars over Kashmir, their aggressive military deployment across the LoC renders the situation fraught with incalculable and catastrophic consequences even to contemplate not only for South Asia but for the entire world.
The JKLF reminded these Governments that the nature of division of Kashmir and its people would be unacceptable anywhere else in the world today where tens of thousands of families are divided and point out that this is exactly the kind of situation which brought the ‘Iron curtain ‘down in the west. The JKLF said that as a movement committed to asserting the rights of Kashmiris it was totally committed to making Kashmir a bridge of peace between India and Pakistan as a considered party policy and a long standing national objective. The JKLF correspondence to these governments strongly urged that Kashmiris and JKLF anticipate their active support for a peaceful and lasting solution of the Kashmir dispute.
Mahmood Hussain
For and on behalf of the JKLF
