MUZAFFARABAD: The sit-in staged by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) — the secular nationalistic organisation which had pioneered anti-India pro-freedom struggle decades ago — in the proximity of the Line of Control (LoC) for more than 10 days was wound up on Wednesday after the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) prime minister requested the group to put off the activity till an appropriate time.

On October 5, the JKLF-led ‘peaceful freedom march’ had come to a halt near Jiskool village, just 8km away from the LoC, the dividing line between the two parts of the Himalayan Valley, due to blockade of Muzaffarabad-Srinagar highway by the local administration.

Ever since, JKLF activists had been staging a sit-in under large tents at the same spot where many political leaders visited them to express solidarity with them.

Since Monday, two groups of JKLF workers had also staged hunger strike for 24 hours to press for acceptance of their demands, which included removal of containers by the AJK government to let them continue their march towards the LoC or bringing representatives of the United Nations secretary general and P5 members of the UN Security Council to their camp so that they can present their charter of demands to them.

Accompanied by AJK PM, Front leaders present memorandum to UN military observers

Last week, AJK PM Raja Farooq Haider, who had shrugged off suggestions to use force to disperse the JKLF activists, had also written a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, asking him to take some steps in the light of the demands by the JKLF leaders.

It was perhaps because of back channel efforts that on Wednesday a six-member representative delegation of the JKLF met UN military observers at their Muzaffarabad office in the presence of PM Haider and AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir.

The JKLF leaders also delivered a memorandum, addressed to UN Secretary General António Guterres, to the military observers, urging them to impress upon India to lift the more than two-month-long lockdown in Occu­pied Kashmir and release hundreds of pro-freedom leaders and thousands of youngsters arrested during the ongoing turmoil.

Mr Guterres was further demanded that he constitute a commission of inquiry as recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in its report of June 2018 followed by its updated version of July 2019.

The commission should be given free access to both parts of Jammu and Kashmir to independently assess the extent of human rights situation there, the memorandum said.

The UN chief was also urged to call upon both India and Pakistan to respect and recognise the territorial integrity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, guaranteed under UNSC resolutions 38 and 91 of Jan 17, 1948, and March 30, 1951, respectively.

Both countries should also be asked to revoke any steps aimed at disturbing the territorial integrity as well as demography of the state, it said.

The memorandum urged the UN chief to ensure ‘withdrawal of forces’ from the disputed Himalayan region and create an atmosphere conducive to holding a free and fair plebiscite with the help of UN peacekeeping forces under the UNSC resolution of Aug 13, 1948.

The memorandum warned that the unresolved status of Kashmir issue could force people from both sides of the unnatural divide to go for any appropriate political move, including using once again the option of crossing the ceasefire line after six months, in accordance with the right given to them under paragraphs 12 and 13 of UN resolution 47 of April 21, 1948.

After the meeting at the office of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, the JKLF leaders returned to their sit-in camp at Jiskool, some 53 kilometres south of here, to inform the participants of the developments.

Moving scenes were witnessed at the camp when Prime Minister Haider reached there to make a request to the JKLF leadership to put off the sit-in so that a unanimous course of action could be devised.

Many participants hugged Mr Haidar with tearful eyes amid deafening pro-freedom anti-India slogans.

Paying tribute to the participants, the AJK premier said: “Stopping you here was a painful act but I cannot expose my people to the merciless Indian army stationed across the divide.”

He asked the Kashmiris to be wary of Indian machinations to create friction in their ranks on the basis of ideological differences.

“Pakistan is our lone supporter and the only obstacle in the way of India’s hegemonic designs. While struggling for our own survival we should also ensure Pakistan’s survival,” he said.

After the AJK premier’s emotional speech, JKLF acting chairman Abdul Hameed Butt announced deferment of the sit-in and the march till an appropriate time.

“I’m grateful to [the] JKLF leadership for honouring my request to put off their sit-in. [I am] equally grateful to [the] UN observers, Pakistan Army and Foreign Office for their cooperation in this regard. Calling off the [freedom] march doesn’t mean we have acknowledged the sanctity of the ceasefire line. It will vanish, the sooner the better,” Mr Haider tweeted on his return to Muzaffarabad.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2019