ISLAMABAD: A large posse of paramilitary forces has been deployed about 18 km away from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) Pakistani Kashmir to block the passage of the JKLF activists who have threatened to violate the LAC on Feb.11
This move follows the federal and PoK government’s decision to disallow the LAC crossing. The decision was taken recently at a high-level meeting convened by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif I was attended by officials of the foreign office and the chiefs of the ISI and the intelligence bureau. Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan the Pak PM also attended the meeting. It took stock of the situation likely to be created as a result of the LAC violation. Notice was also taken of the strong Indian reaction. Efforts to persuade the JKLF chief Amanullah Khan to desist from taking out the march have not succeeded. The federal ministers and the intelligence chief’s also tried to persuade the JKLF chief to call off the march.
A handout issued by the government reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment both moral and political to the cause of self-determination for the Kashmiris Nawaz Sharif observed that the massive response to his call for a strike on Thursday was ample manifestation of this solidarity with the Kashmiris.
Nawaz Sharif warned that no one would be allowed to play with innocent lives by placing them before Indian firing squads across the Line of Actual Control He appealed to the international community to intervene and get the “atrocities” against the Kashmiris stopped. He also appealed to the UN Security Council members to urge India to abide by the UN resolutions and hold a plebiscite in J and K.
Two British members of parliament Terry Ronney (Labour) and Garry Walter (Conservative) have arrived here en route to Pok to witness the JKLF crossing. The secretary general foreign affairs) Akram Zaki informed them that the Kashmir militancy was indigenous.
The Lahore daily The Nation has editorially commented that Pakistan is duty-bound under the Shimla accord to stop any violation of the LAC. It has also warned the JKLF leadership that it should understand that “dead soldiers do not fight.”
The Peshawar-based Frontier Post carries a cartoon depicting the death march being led by the JIKLF to the Line of Actual Control.
Meanwhile a few convoys of the JKLF activists left Rawalpindi for Mauzzaffarabad the capital of the ok to move on to Chakothi a small border town.
Official sources said the JKLF activists would best opened on their way to Chakothi.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1992
