LONDON, Oct. 5, Reuter: A Kashmir opposition leader today called for international sanctions against India to press independence demands for the Himalayan territory and accused British authorities of treating Kashmiris like terrorists.
“I call upon those countries who have professed their support for the Kashmir case to implement limited sanctions against India”, Kashmiri opposition leader Sultan Mchmoud Chaudry said.
He was speaking at the Azad Jammu Kashmir Muslim conference in London, attended by an estimated 3,000 Kashmiris from Britain, the United States, Denmark, Belgium, Egypt, India and Pakistan.
Kashmir was split between India and Pakistan when they gained independence from Britain in 1947, and the two countries have since fought two wars over the mountainous territory. The conference called for the withdrawal of Indian armed forces what it called “occupied Kashmir” and the reunification of Kashmir, to be followed by a plebiscite under the United Nations. Chaudry accused India of discriminating against Kashmiris who are mainly Moslems and not Hindus.
“Recent anti Muslim riots and atrocities in India have only strengthened our desire to achieve a free Kashmir”, Chaudry said. Sanctions would include a boycott of tourism and a refusal by all visiting ‘sports teams to India to play matches or competitions in Kashmir, he said.
The Sultan also accused British authorities of harassing the 150,000 strong Kashmiri community here. “The British authorities have in a strange sense of justice decided that all Kashmiris are extremists.
We are all terrorists in their eyes and so they consider that Kashmiris require special attention,” he said His remarks come as Britain is seeking to deport a leading Kashmiri secessionist and is negotiating an extradition treaty with India. To cover terrorist activities by separatists in this country. Britain’s 500,000 strong Sikh community has often protested against the Indian government. But the Kashmiris have been the most vociferous recently over a highly publicized British attempt to deport a Kashmiri Independence leader. Last week, Amanullah Khan suffered a setback in his campaign to avoid deportation from Britain as a “Nation Security risk” when a high court judge ruled he must stay in London’s Brixton Prison pending a final decision on when to deport him.
Khan, the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front fighting for independence from India and Pakistan, was acquitted last month on explosives charges.
But the Home Office (Interior Ministry) immediately served him with the deportation order saying his presence was not conductive to the public good.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 10, 1986
