NEW DELHI: It was the last thing the Pakistanis expected: at a nonofficial Indo-Pak conference sponsored by an American institution a leader of the Jammu and Kashmir All-Party Hurriyat Conference bluntly told them that Kashmiris did not want to be a part of Pakistan.

 The occasion was the seventh meeting of the Nimrana Initiative Sponsored by the Ford Foundation held on May 27-28 here in India. Hurriyat leader Moulvi Abbas Ansari was among the Kashmiris invited to informally Share his views with the conference. The Initiative was set up about two and half years ago as a forum where eminent intellectual’s referred officials and industrialists from both India and Pakistan could informally air out their views on contentious bilateral issues and provide a feedback to official policy-makers in their respective nations.

Indian members of the initiative include Co-Chairman Professor Am Khusrau JNU academician Satish Kumar veteran journalist B.G. Verghese Defence expert K. Subramaniam former Vice Chief of Amy Staff General Vohra among others; from the Pakistani side former Foreign Secretary Niaz Naik and former President Zia-ul Haqs number two men General Arif. The latest meeting was significant as people of Jammu and Kashmir were invited to attend for the first time Participants included Moulvi Ansari Fazal Haq Qureshi (a former Peoples League activist) and some Jammu based activists including Balraj Puri. AS the Pakistanis had consistently complained that they never had a chance to hear the Brahmins point of view on the ongoing crisis the meeting provided an opportunity to hear their views from the pro-verbal horse’s mouth.

Sources in the Initiative said that while Moulvi Ansari reiterated the Kashmiri stand that the people would settle for nothing less than self-determination he took the Pakistanis by surprise when he declared that Kashmiris did not want to accede to Pakistan especially since the Hurriyat has been an allowedly Pro-Pakistan organization. The Pakistanis were in for further surprise when they discussed the term Azaadi. According to the Kashmiris Azaadi had several connotations it could mean complete independence it could mean independence from either India or Pakistan or it could mean independence within India.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 17, 1994