SRINAGAR, Jan 29 (2001): One of the member groups of Kashmir’s main separatist alliance said on Monday it would donate blood for those injured in the devastating earthquake that has killed at least 20,000 people in western India.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) – one of the seven executive parties of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference – said it would donate 100 pints of blood for the quake victims.
“We have full sympthy with the people of Gujarat and JKLF will send 100 pints of blood for the injured,” the JKLF, which is fighting for Kashmir’s independence from both India and Pakistan, said in a statement.
The earthquake hit Gujarat on Friday, collapsing buildings across the state.
The Hurriyat bands nearly two dozen political, social and religious groups in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state.
Another member of the Hurriyat, Jamat-e-Islami, a separatist and religious party, has appealed to people of Indian-controlled Kashmir to donate to the quake victims.
In a separate statement, the Hurriyat expressed sympathy but said it could do nothing to help the victims.
“We can understand the misery of the people of Gujarat,” it said. “(But)…we cannot extend any help to the distressed people, we feel sorry about it.”
Nearly a dozen guerrilla groups are fighting New Delhi’s rule in Kashmir. Authorities say more than 30,000 people have been killed in 11 years of separatist rebellion.
