MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistani officials said on Saturday, Sept. 7, a “warlike situation” existed along a military control line border with India in disputed Kashmir as two sides traded artillery and machinegun fire. They accused Indian forces of starting the firing in the Neelum Valley of Pakistan ruled Azad Kashmir while controversial state assembly elections were held in the Indian ruled part of the Himalayan region. Public rallies and marches were held in Azad Kashmir to protest at the elections in Indian held Kashmir. At least one civilian was killed and two were wounded by Indian shelling at Athmuqam town, northeast of the state capital Muzaffarabad, Pakistan military sources said. “We are forced to retaliate,” an army official said. He said the Indians fired some 250 mortar bombs in the area before shelling stopped in the evening. “It was a warlike situation.”
Azad Kashmir premier Sultan Mahmood led hundreds of marchers to a U.N. military observers’ office in Muzaffarabad to hand a memorandum protesting against the elections and calling fora U.N. mandated plebiscite in Kashmir. Among the placards carried by the marchers were “No to election, no to selection, yes to liberation,” and “Election is no substitute for the right to self-determination.” Similar rallies were held at other towns in Azad Kashmir and in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, Kashmiri sources said. “Kashmiris have rejected these elections (in Indian Kashmir) and will continue their struggle until freedom,” Mahmood said in a speech to Muzaffarabad protesters.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
