ISLAMABAD, 19 September 2003 — Kashmiri militant groups, defying efforts to improve ties between India and Pakistan, said yesterday they were sending more militants into Indian Kashmir than at any time in the last two years.
“We are still sending mujahideen across the Line of Control into Indian-occupied Kashmir,” a leader of one major militant group fighting Indian rule in part of the disputed region said.
“We will continue our jihad (holy war) come what may,” the leader said, declining to be identified.
Relations between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India, which came close to war last year, have thawed in recent months. But a surge in violence in the disputed Himalayan region has cast doubts over the tentative peace process.
India insists Pakistan must do more to curb the flow of Muslim guerrillas from its side of Kashmir into Indian-ruled territory before talks can resume.
Pakistan says it has done all it can and calls for an early resumption of negotiations to settle the “core issue” of Kashmir. The countries have fought two of their three wars since independence over the territory.
“Despite restrictions by the Pakistan government, we sent the highest number of militants into Indian-occupied Kashmir in August of any time in the last couple of years,” the militant leader said.
Yesterday, India said it had killed at least 16 suspected militants in separate gun battles as they tried to slip into Indian-held Kashmir from Pakistan.
The militant leaders said it was not easy for Pakistan to curb their activities in Kashmir.
“The Pakistan army cannot stop us (from crossing) because they cannot plug every route,” said a leader of another militant movement, who also declined to be named.
“Almost a dozen groups comprising 10 to 15 mujahideen each crossed into occupied Kashmir in just one area in the last two weeks of August,” he said.
