Mujahideen reject Clinton-Sharif pact

ISLAMABAD, July 5 (PTI) — A front-ranking Pakistan-based militant group has rejected an agreement reached between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and U.S. President Bill Clinton yesterday, paving the way for withdrawal of infiltrators from Kargil and vowed to continue fighting.

"We cannot accept any request either from the USA or the Pakistani Government for withdrawal and the Kashmir issue will be ultimately solved by the Mujahideen," the chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which claims to have the largest number of cadres fighting in Kargil, said in a press note here.

Reacting to the agreement reached in Washington at Mr Sharif’s initiative, Mr Hafuz Muhammad Saeed, said the Lashkar was not party to either the Simla accord or the Lahore declaration hence "we cannot accept any treaty in the light of the Simla agreement."

A joint statement issued after the Clinton-Sharif summit reaffirmed Pakistan’s respect for the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and its desire to settle all problems with India through a bilateral dialogue in accordance with the Simla agreement and the Lahore declaration.

Mr Saeed also warned Mr Sharif that "no government in Pakistan can survive after compromising on the Kashmir problem" and wondered "what Mr Nawaz Sharif had seen in those agreements that he agreed before Mr Clinton to take steps as per these agreements".

Significantly, Mr Saeed held an urgent meeting with Editor of the Nation-Nawa-e-Waqt group of newspapers and self-proclaimed crusader of the Kashmir cause Majid Nizami after Mr Sharif’s sudden departure for the USA to sort out the Kargil issue.

Mr Nizami, a close Sharif friend who regularly devotes a page to Kashmir affairs in his paper, donated Rs 1 million to Mr Saeed from the Kashmir Relief Fund, which the Nawa-e-Waqt is running since the Kargil crisis began for the Lashkar-e-Toiba cadres engaged in fighting.

The Lashkar regularly trains Pakistani youths from across the country and pushes them across the LoC into Indian territory.

KARACHI (Reuters): A Muslim militant group fighting Indian soldiers in Kashmir on Monday warned Mr Nawaz Sharif of "damaging consequences" if his actions hurt the "cause of Kashmir."

The Harkat-ul Mujahideen group said the US-Pakistan agreement designed to end the conflict with India would have no impact on the battlefield in Kashmir.

"No (Pakistani) government has ever survived if its actions are damaging to the cause of Kashmir. Mr Nawaz Sharif’s fate would not be different if he chooses to intervene in our affairs," Harkat’s chief Fazalur Rehman Khalil told Reuters by the telephone from Islamabad.

Harkat is one of the four groups which say they have been fighting intense battles with Indian troops in Kashmir’s northern Kargil-Dras sector for the past two months, and its camps in Afghanistan were among targets of a U.S. missile attack last year against suspected hideouts of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

"Politically speaking it will have no impact," Mr Khalil said of the Sharif-Clinton agreement. "Pakistan was never there and whatever it says the guns are in our hands," Mr Khalil said.