SRINAGAR, Feb 7 (1992) – Thousands of Kashmiris rallied here Friday to support a proposed march from Pakistan to Indian-held Kashmir, as New Delhi threatened to use force if the marchers crossed the international border.
An estimated 20,000 Kashmiris cheered a top guerrilla leader when he declared that the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) would not back down from its threatened procession Tuesday, despite a ban by Pakistan.
“Anyone who obstructs the march … will find his place among the enemies of the Kashmiri nation,” JKLF chief Javed Ahmad Mir told an emotionally charged gathering at the Hazratbal mosque here.
Mir, who is wanted by Indian authorities, mingled in the crowd and disappeared after the brief speech in which he reiterated the JKLF demand that Kashmir be free of both Indian and Pakistani control.
He told the crowd the campaign for an independent Kashmir was gaining global support and that most countries “were already impressed by the genuineness of the movement.”
Ownership of Kashmir is disputed by India and Pakistan, and the two South Asian neighbours have gone to war twice over the Moslem-dominated state.
Mir urged JKLF chairman Amanullah Khan, who lives in Pakistan and is now reportedly in hiding, to go ahead with the proposed march despite Islamabad’s pledge to stop it.
Before disappearing into the crowd, Mir shouted “Kashmir will become independent”, and the gathering roared back, witnesses said. Several Kashmiris also chanted: “Amanullah Khan go ahead, we are with you.”
The JKLF is the leading guerrilla group in Kashmir and wants the whole of the picturesque state to become an independent nation. Other Moslem groups want the Indian-held Kashmir to accede to Pakistan.
