MMA Condemns Musharraf’s ‘Obsession for Peace’

ISLAMABAD, 26 April 2005 — While an upbeat Pakistan government terms President Pervez Musharraf’s India visit as highly successful, the opposition Muttaheda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has said the changed stand on Kashmir would weaken the Kashmiris’ “freedom struggle”.

“By changing Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, we would be denting the freedom struggle of Kashmiris,” MMA chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed said in a statement.

The MMA leader said Kashmiris had already rejected Musharraf’s “division plan” and vowed to continue their struggle. “The unilateral confidence-building measures by Pakistan cannot camouflage the Indian forces’ atrocities against the Kashmiris,” Ahmed said.

He added that the Kashmiris had not sacrificed 80,000 men and women “so that the line of control (LoC) could be made a permanent international border”. Musharraf’s proposal to divide Kashmir into seven zones showed his “contempt” for Kashmiri martyrs, he said.

He alleged that while Islamabad was obsessed with unilateral peace and friendship plans with India, the Indians would let down Pakistan on the Baglihar dam issue. The disputed dam is being built on the Chenab River that Pakistan says will restrict water flows to it. “This obsession for peace with India has led them to cut their own jugular vein,” the statement said. The MMA leader vowed that Kashmiris were not alone in their freedom struggle. A Kashmir conference on the Hatian-Srinagar Road on May 2 would send out the message to Indians and Kashmiris across the LoC that resumption of communication links could not compromise the freedom struggle, he said.

Musharraf, meanwhile said, India and Pakistan have achieved a “breakthrough” in their peace process and have “clearly resolved” to move toward a “final settlement” of the Kashmir problem.

“My talks (in New Delhi) with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yielded positive results and led to a joint statement which reflected a clear resolve to address all issues and a resolve to move toward a final settlement of the Kashmir issue,” the president said in an interview with state-run APP news agency.