ISLAMABAD: The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (Amanullah Khan group) on Saturday said it would "oppose tooth and nail" any solution to the Kashmir issue not based on the free will of the Kashmiri people and any attempt by India and Pakistan to "disintegrate" Jammu and Kashmir State.

In a statement timed for the arrival here of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the pro-independence JKLF leader Amanullah Khan said the "best equitable and honourable solution" would be to reunite the State and let it emerge as fully independent with "a democratic, federal and secular" system of government.

Referendum

A referendum could be held 15 years later for Kashmiris to decide whether they should continue being independent or join Pakistan or India.

The Rawalpindi-based Khan urged India and Pakistan, the international community and also Kashmiri leaders across the Line of Control to accept the JKLF proposal, "the only way to ensure a prosperous, peaceful and honourable future for the people of the entire region and their future generations."

"All that India and Pakistan [have to do is that] instead of behaving like colonialists, they behave like civilised and democratic-minded nations and implement the pledges they had given to Kashmiris and to the world regarding conceding to Kashmiris their right to shape their own future in full accordance with their freely expressed will."

Mr. Khan tried to contest in the 2006 elections in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but his nomination was rejected because he refused to sign an affidavit swearing by Kashmir's accession to Pakistan.

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