KARACHI, 11 June 2005 — A senior moderate separatist leader from Indian Kashmir yesterday called on militants fighting New Delhi’s rule in the restive Himalayan region to join the political mainstream.
“Now the time has come when political and militant wings sit together and formulate a strategy for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told journalists in the port city of Karachi.
He pointed to the example of Northern Ireland, where militants had backed a political solution to end decades of Protestant-Catholic violence in the British-ruled province.
“At this juncture, political leadership should play a leading role with the support and consensus of militant leadership in finding a just solution to the Kashmir problem,” Farooq said. He also offered to give militant groups representation in Hurriyat.
In another development, two factions of a major Kashmiri group seeking independence from both India and Pakistan have agreed to reunite, one of its leaders told Reuters yesterday. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) was at the forefront of an uprising against Indian rule in Kashmir in 1989.
The JKLF split in two after Yasin Malik, its leader in the Indian portion of Kashmir, decided to reject militancy and continue the struggle through political agitation following his release from jail in 1994.
Amanullah Khan, the chairman of the JKLF in Pakistan told Reuters that old differences were being set aside. “We sat down and agreed that we should reunite JKLF in the larger interest of our ideology and our cause,” Khan said.
Malik, who is visiting Pakistan along with eight other separatist leaders from Indian Kashmir, met Khan on Wednesday.
JKLF retains strong support among Kashmiris, but since the early 1990s the lead role in the insurgency was taken over by militant groups.
