NEW DELHI: A spokesman of the Harkatul Ansar, a militant organization, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from occupied Kashmir on telephone May 14, that 30 1040men of the organization were holed up in the ChrareSharief shrine before it was burnt down but now he was not aware of their fate.
He told the BBC Urdu Service in the London from Muzaffarabad that there ‘was nothing wrong in militants going to Kashmir from the Pakistan occupied territory of the state Muzaffarabad is the capital of this, territory.
When spokesman Farooq Kashmiri was asked how many of the Harkatul Ansar men died in ChrareSharief, he said there were 30 1040 of his men in the shrine but because communication with them was snapped (during the shootout between the holed up militants and the security forces) he was not in a position to say how many of them died.
It may be recalled that soon after the fire in the shrine, the Harkatul Ansar announced from Muzaffarabad that two of its men had been killed, this apparently embarrassed Pakistani Foreign Minister Asset Ali, who told newspapers in Islamabad that there were no militants in ChrareSharief from Kashmir. When reminded of the claim of the Harkatul Ansar, he fumbled for a reply and then said he would see the statement.
The spokesman justified the presence of militants from Occupied Kashmir in ChrareSharief by saying that they were also Kashmiris. But when the BBC asked him about the presence of Mast Gul, an Afghan, in the shrine, he evaded a reply saying he did not belong to his organization.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 19, 1995
