SRINAGAR: Acting Chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Javed Mir has blamed outfits like the Hizbul Mujahedeen for causing “considerable harm” to the militant cause by their “pro-Pakistani” slant. In an interview recently, Mir said intelligence agencies had infiltrated the militant ranks.
Mir, said that he was willing 10 come to the negotiating table if there was a tripartite conference between “Kashmiris,” Pakistan and Indian Government and if such a conference was held in a neutral venue. In an additional condition attached to the offer, said he was “Willing to drop the gun” struggle.
The JKLF chief, whose group stands for “independence” said groups like Hizbul “and speaking in two voices demanding azadi (independence in public and advocating joining Pakistan in private, they must put their true feelings before the Kashmiris and respect their verdict,” he said.
The JKLF chief admitted that a number of militant out fits had been “infiltrated” by intelligence agencies which had caused a setback to militancy in the alley.
“Some of our own are betraying us,” he said, in a small street gathering of about 80 people in Baba Demb locality of downtown Srinagar on Wednesday.
Asking Kashmir is to urge their brethren in the valley to take to the streets, the JKLF chief, who has been making public appearances since he took over the leadership of the outfit, said that since people have stopped coming out in large numbers, militants could not get sufficient cover.
He said” We can only hold a grudge against those who pledged to Support us, but have chosen to sit back and watch the tamasha instead.” “Muslim countries rushed to the aid of Kuwait in the Gulf war because it had oil. But no one has come to the aid of Kashmiris, he said speaking alternatively in Urdu and English for the benefit of journalists.
He accused the “so-called Muslim countries of the world” of Sitting as “mute witnesses to what he described as “mass murder and tape of innocent Kashmiris” and called upon “the self -professed champions of democracy in the west Bill Clinton and John Major to the rescue of Kashmiris since we have been let down by those we considered to be our very own.”
So far nearly 200 people including militants and security men have been killed in the Valley since April 8.
The JKLF had called upon Srinagar residents to march on Wednesday to Lal Chowk, parts of which were burnt down on Saturday and Sunday to protest against what it termed as. Large-scale arrests, torture and custodial killings of Kashmiris. Several militant outfits had endorsed the JKLF call.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 23, 1993
