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JKLF for Kashmiris' involvement in peace process

Hasan Suroor

"India, Pakistan have no right to decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir"

LONDON: The U.K.-based Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has called for "genuine representatives" of Kashmiris to be involved in the India-Pakistan peace process, saying New Delhi and Islamabad have "no right" to decide the future of the people of the region without consulting them.

The JKLF central committee, which met in Birmingham to discuss the issue, said in a statement here on Wednesday that it supported the peace process but there could be no satisfactory solution to the Kashmir dispute without the Kashmiris' participation.

"The central committee demanded that genuine representatives of the Kashmir people be made part of the peace process. India and Pakistan have no right to decide the future of the State of Jammu and Kashmir," Shabir Choudhry, head of JKLF's diplomatic committee, said.

The central committee said there could be no military solution and "all violence" in Jammu and Kashmir should end so that people could lead their daily lives without "fear or intimidation."

The JKLF, it said, believed that the Kashmir issue was not just a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan but concerned the "identity and future of the people of Jammu and Kashmir."

The committee said: "We want the people of Jammu and Kashmir to get their basic human rights which are not available to them on both sides of the LoC. We want the Governments of India and Pakistan to respect their pledges made to the people of Kashmir and grant basic rights to the people.

"We support the peace process but we want to emphasise that there could be no peace without actual participation of the Kashmiri people."

Dr. Choudhry said Baroness Emma Nicholson's report, criticising Pakistan for human rights violations in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, was a "major achievement" for the JKLF's campaign for the Kashmiris' basic rights.

The report, adopted by the European Parliament recently, has been rejected by Pakistan. It said the report was full of factual inaccuracies.

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