Any plan to divide J&K will be resisted: Amanullah

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 18. The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief, Mr. Amanullah Khan, has said the Kashmir issue concerned the ``unfettered right of self-determination'' of the people of the divided Jammu and Kashmir State and any plan for the State's division would be resisted.

He was commenting on a press report that the United States Government had evolved a solution for the Kashmir problem and had discussed it with the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, during their recent visit to the U.S. The report said that the U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, would discuss it with them further and present it formally during his coming visit to the region.

Mr. Khan said the right to self-determination of 15 million Kashmiris formed the basis of the issue. At the same time, for the resolution of the issue to the satisfaction of all concerned, it was necessary that some bitter realities were kept in mind.

The first bitter reality was that no solution which hurt the national ego or harmed the national ideologies or the legitimate national interests of India and Pakistan would be acceptable to them.

``Equally true is the fact, that neither wars nor talks between India and Pakistan had been able to solve the issue nor could they do it in future. Keeping in view all these realities, the only solution that could be practicable, besides being peaceful, equitable and permanent, was that the divided Jammu and Kashmir State is re-united, under the supervision of the international community, and made an independent country having friendly relations with both India and Pakistan and a democratic, secular and federal system of government'', he said.

Mr. Khan, who has been advocating the formula for some time, said fifteen years after the reunification there could be a referendum under U.N. auspices to determine whether Kashmir could become independent or part of India or Pakistan. The popular verdict could be accepted as a permanent settlement of the issue and implemented.

The JKLF chief said the formula fulfilled all the basic requirements and conditions of an equitable, practicable, peaceful and permanent solution of the issue. He called upon India, Pakistan, the international community and Kashmiri political parties on both sides of the divide to do the needful conducive to implementation of the solution.

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Section  : International
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