JEDDAH, 19 April — Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan, a former president and prime minister of Azad Kashmir, has not ruled out the possibility of India and Pakistan going to war over Kashmir. He said that despite world efforts to de-escalate the war-like situation now prevailing in the region, the two countries could go to war over the disputed territory if the issue was not resolved peacefully.

Abdul Qayyum who now chairs the National Kashmir Committee based in Pakistan, said the struggle for independence by the people of Kashmir is intensifying despite repression by the Indian Army and that the element of time and power is in favor of the people of Kashmir. The balance of power in the region has changed after Pakistan joined the nuclear club.

“The repression in Kashmir has been stepped up but the movement of resistance is also going on. We are now in a very bad situation, the danger of war is very much there although it doesn’t seem to be happening. No body wants to go to war, particularly Pakistan.

“We can’t afford to go to war but if it is thrust upon us we have full capability to resist and successfully defend. The balance of military power today is hundred percent in our favor. It has never been so before. In the event of a ground war, we have a far superior capability to combat the Indian Army,” he told Arab News in an interview.

Asked if the world has forgotten Kashmir as the attention is now being focused on the Middle East and a few months ago on Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia, Abdul Qayyum replied this is not the case. “The world would have forgotten had India not moved its troops on the border. India actually has kept the issue alive, otherwise I think for the time being it would have been relegated to the background. Because of the movement of Indian troops the situation has become very tense not only on the border but in the whole region. More than a billion people are going to be affected.”

He said the extent of the struggle movement could be judged by the fact that India has deployed 800,000 troops in Kashmir. Under such circumstances the parties should either go to war or seek to resolve the issue on the table since there is no other choice.

On whether the Kashmiris could settle for greater autonomy as suggested by India, he said India should first withdraw its forces and allow the people of the territory to decide their future.

Azad Kashmir, he added, is already autonomous because it is not part of Pakistan and that if India is prepared to quit Kashmir and allow the Kashmiris to decide their future, the problem will be over, they don’t have to consult the people of Kashmir.

Asked if Azad Kashmir is indeed free of Pakistani influence while it remained dependent on Islamabad, he said the Pakistani-administered part is free and enjoys internal autonomy. The region, he said, has a president, a prime minister, a high court, a supreme court. It has all the symbols of internal autonomy. It is like the state under the British rule. It has the same status that Jammu and Kashmir had under British rule. The government of Pakistan is defending Azad Kashmir and it economically helps the region.

Independence for all Kashmir is the solution, he insisted. “With all these killings, murders, acts of arson, burning of children alive, rape, how can the people accept this and settle for anything less than total withdrawal by India,” he asked. He said a huge catastrophe has taken place and it will not be easy for people to forget or compromise. “It is true that people are suffering on daily basis, but you have to pay the cost of freedom, this is happening everyday in the world,” he said adding the prolongation of the dispute was because the Kashmiris are Muslims

“Look at what happened in East Timor (where the region was granted independence from Indonesia following intervention by the big powers and the United Nations). It is simple, East Timor is Christian and Kashmir is Muslim. The international community has a responsibility to end the suffering of the Kashmiris.”

Qayyum said the United States which sought India’s cooperation in its war against terrorism can intervene to do something as a super power with global responsibility. “It has to see this war coming to an end. America can pressure India.

“Pakistan has accepted all proposals. It is India, which needs to be pressured. Even with India joining what American calls the war against terrorism, India can still be pressed. India is responsible for state terrorism just as Israel is responsible for state terrorism.”

Asked if he thinks the Kashmiris feel betrayed by Muslim countries that failed to put any meaningful pressure on India, he answered there was no betrayal but India has the advantage of 2000 years associations with various countries including Muslim states.

“Yes, they can still pressure India economically and may be ultimately we will come to that. There are many difficulties, I keep talking to them, to the Organization of the Islamic Conference and we are discussing.”

Qayyum said they are keeping close cooperation with the movements inside Kashmir and that his party, The Muslim Party, is a member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the umbrella grouping several Kashmiri political and social organizations.

He, however, denied they are providing the freedom fighters with weapons because weapons is not a problem. “You give me the money and from where I am sitting I will give you Indian Army weapons anywhere in Kashmir wherever you want. It is no longer a problem.”

The sectarian violence in Gujarat where Hindus are brutalizing Muslims has affected the situation in Kashmir but at the same time it helped the Kashmir cause, he said. “This is because people in Kashmir now think the same fate awaits them.

The armed struggle (by the Kashmiris) is helping psychologically people who want to part ways with India. There is an slipover effect. There are a dozen freedom movements inside India.

A New Delhi leader has said that one day they might create another Pakistan. The problem is that Indian Muslims are scattered all over the country and we do not want them to be involved in this (conflict) because they have to live in India and Kashmir is not part of India.

On the fate of the 15 percent non-Muslim population of Kashmir if the territory is to become an independent entity, Abdul Qayyum said they would be guaranteed full rights. “If they want to live with us they will be guaranteed full rights.”