MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, March 9 (News Agencies) - A veteran Kashmiri politician Friday expressed anger that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is not planning to meet Kashmiri leaders during his upcoming visit to Pakistan and India.
"We are angered over reports that the Secretary General Kofi Annan would meet neither Kashmiri leaders nor discuss the issue with Pakistan during the visit," said Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chief Amanullah Khan.
"The Kashmir dispute is the greatest danger to world peace with two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, at daggers drawn and the secretary general is duty bound to take initiatives to reduce tension," he said.
Annan is due here late Saturday and U.N. officials have said Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf is expected to raise the row with India over the divided Himalayan state.
He will then travel to Nepal, Bangladesh and India before returning to New York on March 18th.
"Mr. Annan will concentrate his talks on regional issues that may affect the stability of the region," a U.N. statement said Friday.
"As he has stated in the past he will be fully supportive of a comprehensive Pakistan-India dialogue and will listen carefully to the concerns of his interlocutors."
Pakistan and India have fought three of their four wars since 1947 over Kashmir and a freedom struggle on the Indian side of the Muslim majority state has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 1989.
Islamabad wants the implementation of longstanding U.N. resolutions calling for a plebiscite to allow the Kashmiris the right of self-determination.
India insists the state is an integral part of its territory and blamed Pakistan for fuelling the freedom struggle, a charge Islamabad denies.
The 18-party Muttahidda Jihad Council (MJC), an alliance of Muslim groups, met in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, Friday and blamed the U.N. for forcing them to take up arms.
"United Nations' inability to resolve the festering Kashmir dispute through peaceful means has forced us to take up arms against Indian occupation of the valley," the MJC said in a statement.
"The double standards of the world body have encouraged India to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Kashmir.
"We don't have any hope that the tour will help resolve the lingering Kashmir problem. The criminal negligence and apathy of the U.N. towards the settlement of the problem has shattered our confidence in it," the MJC said.
