Centre considering J&K autonomy: Farooq

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, AUG. 15. Reiterating his party's demand for the restoration of autonomy to the State, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, said here today that it was not secession, nor would it weaken ties with the Centre. The Central Government was considering autonomy for the State, he asserted and rejected the idea of its trifurcation on communal lines saying the country could not afford more divisions.

Speaking after taking the salute at the Independence Day function here, Dr. Abdullah said, ``The people of the State do not want to get out of India but yearn for further strengthening relations with the country.We want India to be strong as in its strength lies the strength of Jammu and Kashmir''. (Earlier, in an interview to a TV channel, he said the Centre might soon talk to the State Government on autonomy as it had sent signals in that direction. Sources said the Centre's interlocutor on Kashmir, Mr. K.C. Pant, would pick up the threads of the issue, pushed to the background after the Centre rejected the State Assembly's resolution last year.)

Lashing out at those demanding the State's trifurcation, Dr. Abdullah said if they wanted separate land for Hindus and Buddhists, they should be prepared for separate States for Jains, Sikhs, Christians and others. The country could not afford any more division on the basis of religion. A mistake was committed in 1947 for which ``we are facing the consequences even now''.

Accusing Pakistan of using the blood of Kashmiris for political sustenance, he said, ``It wants to build castles on the graves of Kashmiris''. Despite engineering mayhem and saying parrot-like ``Kashmir day in and day out'', Pakistan could not change the Line of Control, whatever the level of terrorism sponsored by it.

Asking the people to fight terrorism, he said, ``Those digging graves for others will themselves get buried in them''. He declared that the Kashmiris, no doubt predominantly Muslim, were Indians and not Pakistanis, but had been at the receiving end of Pakistan's proxy war for the last 12 years. ``Whenever a Kashmiri gets Pakistani bullets, the blood spills for India,'' he said, adding, ``Dissect our hearts and you will find India inscribed on it''.

Asking Pakistan to throw open the Rawalpindi road, he said this would help people see what was there in that country - the pitiable condition of those living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, especially Gilgit, Baltistan and Hunza. In the name of the so- called freedom struggle, they were killing innocents, coercing people and newspapers to toe their line and, above all defaming the name of Islam. Hapless women, he said, had been subjected to humiliation which had touched alarming dimensions - with the sprinkling of acid on them for not being veiled.

Dr. Abdullah said the strength of Indian democracy lay in the fact that those campaigning against the nation were not only tolerated but also provided security and escorts to move around in bullet-proof vehicles. In Pakistan, such elements would get nothing but the gallows.

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