MUZAFFARABAD: The Jam­mu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a pro-independence organi­sa­­tion headed by incarcerated Kashmiri leader Mohammad Yasin Malik, on Thursday announc­­ed holding a peaceful freedom march towards the Line of Control (LoC) on Oct 4, calling upon the governments in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad not to create any hindrance to the move.

The announcement was made by JKLF central spokesperson Mohammad Rafiq Dar at a news conference.

“In order to express solidarity with the besieged population of Indian occupied Kashmir, to draw attention of the international community towards the state terrorism unleashed by India in the held territory and to press it to get the lingering issue permanently and democratically resolved on a priority basis, we have taken a revolutionary decision to stage a ‘peaceful people’s freedom march’ from Bhimber to Chakothi under the leadership of acting JKLF chairman Abdul Hameed Butt,” Mr Dar said.

“Later, we would trample down the bloody line or the so-called ceasefire line that splits the state of Jammu and Kashmir from Chakothi sector,” he added, referring to the LoC.

This decision, he said, was taken on Aug 30 at a joint meeting of the JKLF’s most authoritative ‘supreme council’ and the zonal working committee of AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan in Rawalpindi.

The meeting was presided over by elderly vice chairman Hafiz Anwar Samavi, as acting chairman could not show up due to illness, he said, adding that Chaudhry Tanvir Ahmed and Khalid Kashmiri, heads of Europe and Middle East zones, respectively, were also among the attendees.

The JKLF spokesperson pointed out that India had turned the whole territory into a military concentration camp, holding people hostage in their homes and cutting off all communication links amid a round- the-clock curfew and crackdowns.

He said JKLF chief Yasin Malik had already been lodged in solitary confinement in the infamous Tihar jail while Joint Resistance leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were also under house arrest.

Besides, several other leaders like Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Asiya Andrabi, Noor Mohammad Kulwal, Dr Fayyaz Ahmed, Mian Abdul Qayyum, Mohammad Yasin Khan, and hundreds of thousands of youth had also been incarcerated in different Indian prisons and torture cells, he added.

Mr Dar recalled that just three days after the Aug 5 Indian move of annulling the special status of the disputed region, the JKLF supreme council had decided to hold a peaceful public march and break the LoC in consultation with all AJK-based political parties and All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leadership.

He said the same suggestion was put forth by APHC representatives at a multiparty conference convened by AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider in Kashmir House, Islamabad, on Aug 9, which not only endorsed it but also made it part of the joint declaration.

“The AJK premier was supposed to fix a date and place for the programme and work out strategy for it in accordance with that decision... However, due to his indifference and non-seriousness we were forced to take the initiative on our own,” he added.

He said the party had constituted various committees, which would reach out to people from all walks of life to garner their support and cooperation for the Oct 4 march.

Responding to a question, Mr Dar said that if the AJK government would come up with any other date before or soon after Oct 4 for the cross-LoC march, the JKLF would be ready to readjust the date for the sake of national consensus.

“We are not for a solo flight. We gave this call after waiting for their response for over three weeks,” he said of the AJK government.

The JKLF spokesperson expressed the hope that the “governments [of Pakistan and AJK] would not use force against the peaceful marchers”.

“We want to tell the world that we do not recognise this ill-omened line (LoC) and no law of the world restricts us from moving from one part to the other,” he said, and warned that “the use of force against thousands of marchers would change the situation which we do not want”.

The JKLF made three attempts over the past three decades to cross the LoC.

On Feb 11, 1992, its march had reached Chakothi, where Pakis­tani law enforcement personnel opened fire to restrict them from getting closer to the LoC and as a result, seven people were killed.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2019