SRINAGAR, 24 April 2005 — The main rebel group in Indian Kashmir said yesterday it would “seriously consider” any cease-fire offer by New Delhi to end bloodshed in the insurgency-racked region.
The statement by a top Hizbul Mujahedeen leader to a local news agency followed a pledge this week by India and Pakistan to reach a “final settlement” on Kashmir, the spark of two of three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
“If they (the Indians) are serious about it (a cease-fire), Hizbul would seriously consider it,” Gazi Misbahudin, chief operational commander of Hizbul Mujahedeen, told the Kashmir News Service.
So far, India has made no cease-fire proposal. But some Indian commentators have suggested it should make such a gesture in the wake of recent talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New Delhi where they said the peace drive between the two nations was “irreversible”.
Hizbul Mujahedeen, based in Pakistan-held Kashmir, wants the divided territory reunited and joined with Pakistan, and is the key rebel group battling New Delhi’s rule since a revolt erupted in the Indian zone in 1989. Over 40,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence in Kashmir, according to official figures. Separatists say the toll is at least double that. India announced a unilateral cease-fire in 2000 but abandoned it after six months in the absence of similar overtures by rebel groups, including Hizbul.
“Any cease-fire announcement should be followed in spirit on the ground,” said Misbahudin, without elaborating. The Hizbul commander said the Kashmir dispute should be resolved according to Kashmiris’ wishes and on the basis of decades-old UN Security Council resolutions calling for a plebiscite in the region.
The feelers by Hizbul also come after the second successful run Thursday of a trans-Kashmir bus service launched April 7 between Indian Kashmir’s summer capital, Srinagar, and Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani zone. While Hizbul has said militants should not oppose the bus, four other guerrilla groups have vowed to turn the vehicles “into coffins”.
Meanwhile, Indian troops killed four rebel infiltrators who sneaked across the heavily fortified frontier dividing Indian and Pakistan held Kashmir, the Indian Army said yesterday. The militants were gunned down after crossing the Line of Control.
“The troops spotted four infiltrators having crossed the Line of Control,” said army spokesman Lt. Col. D.K. Badola. “Our troops opened fire, killing two infiltrators in the night. Soldiers spotted two more trying to escape and they were gunned down yesterday morning,” he said.
