Militants reject Sharif's
appeal
ISLAMABAD, July 10 (PTI)
— Major militant groups today rejected Pakistan
Premier Nawaz Sharif’s appeal to them to withdraw
from Kargil, with the powerful Lashkar-e-Toiba accusing
the government of "planting stories" in leading
newspapers that they had agreed to pull out.
"If we are forced
to withdraw, we will take our case before the Pakistani
masses" and demand a referendum on the withdrawal
issue, a spokesman of Lashker-e-Toiba, the most organised
and strongest of all militant groups fighting in Kargil,
told PTI.
Leading Urdu Daily
"Jung" said the "Mujahideen" at a
meeting called by Mr Sharif yesterday promised to vacate
some important peaks under their occupation in Kargil in
view of Pakistan’s pledge to the world to reduce
threat of war. However they refused to withdraw
completely.
Mr Sharif during the
meeting, held immediately after the all-powerful Defence
Committee of Cabinet (DCC) decided to appeal to the
infiltrators to "help in resolving the Kargil
situation", sought their cooperation "in
respecting the Line of Control," media reports said.
Almost all
Pakistan-based militant groups, led by Syed Salahuddin of
the Hizbul Mujahideen were present at the hour-long
meeting, also attended by army chief General Pervez
Musharraf and other top government functionaries.
Eleven prominent
Mujahideen leaders, representing various groups attended
"an important meeting with the Prime Minister in
which they were requested to withdraw from Kargil,"
Religious Affairs Minister Raja Zafarul Haq was quoted as
saying by the "Dawn" newspaper.
Ahmed Hamza, leader of
the Al-Badr group, was quoted by AP that "all
Mujahideen groups have unanimous position that they will
not abandon their posts."
Another militant group,
the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen has also rejected the Prime
Minister’s appeal, the "Jung" said,
quoting its chief Fazalur Rehman Khalil.
Mr Khalil said they did
not have faith in the United States of America and hence
their "fight will go on".
The Laskar-e-Toiba,
would be organising a public meeting on Tuesday here to
place their point of view on the withdrawal issue before
the masses, its spokesman said.
Meanwhile, former Prime
Minister and Leader of Opposition Benazir Bhutto has
termed Mr Sharif’s management of the Kashmir crisis,
"damaging to Pakistan’s national interests and
undermining the Kashmir cause."
"While we must have
peace in this unstable nuclear capable region, we cannot
allow Mr Sharif’s ambiguous policy to damage the
struggle of the Kashmiri people," Ms Bhutto, who is
in London, said in a statement issued here.
"The people of
Pakistan are suspicious of Mr Nawaz’s secret
negotiations with President Clinton," she said
adding that "the contradictions in Kashmir policy
are clear from simultaneous pursuit of bus diplomacy and
the seizure of the Kargil heights."
Cricket
star-turned-politician Imran Khan also accused Sharif of
selling out Kashmiris’ freedom movement to
Washington.
Mr Khan, the chief of
his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, said at Lahore Press
Club yesterday that Mr Sharif committed a serious blunder
by conceding to withdraw from Kargil in his Washington
talks.
Mr Sharif held a meeting
with a Mujahideen delegation and urged them to "help
the government in respecting the Line of Control
(LoC)" in Kashmir and in turn promised them
Islamabad’s continued support for the "Kashmiri
struggle".
The meeting was held at
the Prime Minister’s residence here yesterday
immediately after Mr Sharif chaired a crucial Defence
Committee of Cabinet meeting which decided to appeal to
the infiltrators to "help resolve the Kargil
situation."
Leading daily
‘Jung’ reported that the
"Mujahideens" refused to completely withdraw
from Dras-Kargil but promised that in view of
Pakistan’s commitment to the international community
and to reduce the threat of war in the region they would
vacate some important peaks under their occupation
overlooking the Leh-Kargil road.
English Daily ‘The
News’ said that Mr Sharif asked the militants to
"help the government in respecting the LoC and
assured them that "we will continue to provide you
diplomatic, political and moral support."
Another daily ‘The
Nation’ said Mr Sharif briefed the militants about
his talks with US President Bill Clinton and told them
"I also want liberation of occupied (Indian side of)
Kashmir and we will achieve it in the not very distant
future."
Mujahideens told Mr
Sharif that they would respect its commitment but said
that the timeframe to implement this programme should be
left to them, the Jung report said.
The Jung also said that
the militants, however, warned that they would further
step up their activities against India in Kashmir and
would create a Kargil-like situation once again in the
next few weeks and requested Mr Sharif not to intervene
again.
The report said Mr
Sharif informed the Mujahideens in detail about his
meeting with Clinton and the pressure being exerted on
Pakistan to reduce tension in the region.
Officials were too
cautious of using the word "withdraw" regarding
Mr Sharif’s meeting with the Mujahideens and
insisted on using the word "appeal" but said
the militants had assured that they would not take any
step detrimental to the peace process that the government
had chosen to follow.
Apart from Salahuddin
the other prominent militant leaders who attended the
meeting were Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Zakiurrahman Lakhvi,
Maulana Farooq Kashmiri and Fazlur Rehman of the Harkat
ul Mujahideen (formerly Harkat ul Ansar) as also
representatives of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Tehreek ul
Mujahideen, Al-Badr Mujahideen and the Kashmir Liberation
Front.
The militants have
refused to acknowledge the meeting with Sharif with a
Lashkar-e-Toiba spokesman saying that we are not aware of
any such meeting and spokesman of another militant group,
the Al-Badr Mujahideen, also expressed his ignorance.
Salahuddin, as the chief
of the UJC, had accused Mr Sharif of
"back-stabbing" the Mujahideens by entering
into a commitment with Mr Clinton on withdrawal and had
vowed to continue fighting in Kargil till the onset of
winter.
PoK Prime Minister
Mahmood Choudhury claimed that since the Kashmiris did
not accept the Line of Control (LoC), the Mujahideen
should not be asked to withdraw and demanded that India
should immediately withdraw from Siachen if it wanted a
demarcation of LoC.
"Kashmiris do not
accept the present LoC, nor they are party to it, in any
manner whatsoever," Choudhury, who enjoys patronage
from the government in Islamabad, told official APP news
agency after his return from South Africa and UK where he
had gone to win support for the "Kashmiri freedom
struggle."
The Mujahideens, he
said, have not occupied the Kargil heights on
instructions from Islamabad and, "they would not
surrender from their legitimate rights of staying there
under any pressure."
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