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Hold plebiscite if you believe survey: Hurriyat to Centre

The All Party Hurriyat Conference on Sunday challenged the authenticity of the opinion poll conducted by London-based agency MORI.

The poll, in which 800 people from Jammu and Kashmir took part, had declared that 61 per cent of the people in the state wanted to remain with India while only 6 per cent preferred Pakistan.

"This poll has been conducted by a particular agency with malafide intentions to discredit our movement. Eight hundred persons cannot decide the fate of 12 million people of Jammu and Kashmir. The poll is not representative in any sense," Hurriyat chairman Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat said.

"If New Delhi believes that 61 per cent people in Jammu and Kashmir support India, then it should hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. Going by the results of this poll, India should be a winner in any such referendum and integrate Jammu and Kashmir for good," Bhat told rediff.com

London-based 'Friends of Kashmir', headed by Lord Avebury, had commissioned the poll. He remarked that his opinion about Kashmir had changed after the results.

Reacting to Avebury's statement, Bhat said a person who changed opinion so quickly couldn't be a friend of Kashmiris. "Who is he? Our people have given supreme sacrifices for achieving the goal of freedom. We do need anybody's certificate," he said.

On the forthcoming assembly election in the state, he said, "Kashmir is a problem which cannot be solved by elections. We are not accepting the Indian Constitution and there is no point in contesting elections under it," he said.

"The international community should adopt same yardstick, which is used in East Timour. A referendum was held to determine their opinion and that should be applied here too."

"The international community is fighting a war against terrorism. The case of Kashmir is entirely different. We are fighting for freedom. We know that no Kashmiri group is banned by any country in the world. And that should be the answer to all those people who harp on the issue of cross-border terrorism," Bhat said.

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