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On October 4, ’99
over 1000 people in the Hajira valley, organised into small groups to avoid
detection by Pak police checkpoints, attempted to cross the LoC. Pakistan police
faught pitched battles with hundreds of pro-independence Kashmiri activists to
stop the march into the Indian part of Kashmir. The Pakistan forces arrested 250
and ruthlessly beat up the people gathered near the border. The ‘Jammu Kashmir
Liberation Front’ said that despite the Pakistani crackdown and firing by the
Indian army it will continue its efforts to cross the Line of Control. The JKLF
says it opposes the ceasefire line and demands an independent Kashmir.
Simultaneously,
Indian troops opened fire along the ‘border’. Sporadic intense Indian shelling
and small arms fire was reported almost the entire length of the 720 km LoC.
The All Party
Hurriyat Conference, which is continuously slandered by the Indian media of
being a ‘pro-Pak outfit’, came out in open support of the JKLF bid to cross the
LoC. Hurriyat spokesperson, Abdul Majid Banday, strongly condemned the use of
force by Pakistan. He added that "all Kashmiris" do not recog- nise the LoC and
that the Hurriyat was totally supportive of the bid by the JKLF to send men
across the border.
From this it is clear
that the Indian government’s propaganda that the Kashmiri movement is only
‘Pak-sponsored terrorism’ is a big hoax. Also the Pakistani ruler’s so-called
support to the Kashmiri freedom fighters is not for their struggle for freedom,
but merely a scheme to annexe Kashmir to Pakistan. But, by this action the
Kashmiri people and the Hurriyat, have clearly stated that they are for the
total independence of Kashmir, that they do not recognise the so-called line of
control or Pak-occupied Kashmir which artificially divides the Kashmiri nation,
and that they are opposed to being dictated to, by either the sharks in Delhi or
Islamabad.
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