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JKLF may quit APHC, chart its own course

Binoo Joshi in Srinagar

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front is working out an independent political stand as it is growing uncomfortable in the company of pro-Pakistan groups in the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, JKLF sources said on Wednesday.

The sources added that JKLF president Yasin Malik is being lured by some of the leading political groups in the state and is being urged to quit the APHC, some of whose constituents favour Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

They added that Malik was not averse to such overtures.

"He appears to be interested," a source said.

He was reportedly getting tired of the internal bickering in the APHC, which groups separatist organisations seeking to end 'Indian rule' over Jammu and Kashmir.

The JKLF is the premier Kashmiri separatist group and it advocates independence for the entire state.

The group launched the 'liberation struggle' in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989 with its catchy slogan of azadi (independence). On its call, thousands took to the streets here in the early 1990s, chanting slogans for freedom from India.

But over the years, thanks to Islamabad's withdrawal of support to the JKLF, other groups that do not believe in Sufi Islam and want the state to merge with Pakistan took over the movement, edging out the JKLF.

Relations between the JKLF and other APHC members have come under a cloud since the Hurriyat leadership, minus the JKLF, met Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New Delhi in July.

The JKLF boycotted the meeting claiming that Pakistan was trying to impose itself on Kashmiris. The JKLF, whose chairman Amanulla Khan lives in Pakistan, had been insisting on a trilateral dialogue that would involve the Kashmiris, Islamabad and New Delhi.

"If India represents repression for us, Pakistan is a manifestation of the great betrayal," said a JKLF leader privy to the latest developments.

Indo-Asian News Service

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