Pak. rakes up Kashmir at Durban

DURBAN, SEPT. 2. Pakistan today raked up the Kashmir issue at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism here and accused India of ``brutal repression'' that had ``led to the killing of 75,000 people.''

Addressing the conference, the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, said ``it is sad that in our own region, this theme of denigrating the struggle for self-determination as terrorism and associating terrorism with Islam is being actively promoted to justify the ongoing brutal repression of the Kashmiri people.

``The effort by Indian publicists to exploit prevalent prejudices cannot mask the fact that 75,000 people - Kashmiris - have been killed in the last decade of their struggle for freedom,'' Mr. Sattar said.

Pakistan's reference to Kashmir is in violation of Islamabad's promise not to rake up the issue in international fora. Mr. Sattar's comments have come three weeks ahead of a scheduled summit meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session.

- PTI

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