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Pakistan Accuses India Of State Terrorism
By Aamir Latif
IOL correspondent in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD Feb. 5 (IslamOnline) - Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf charged India Tuesday with unleashing "state terrorism" in occupied Kashmir over which the two nuclear countries had fought two wars and a three-week long Kargil skirmish and involved in a tense military standoff.
Pakistan marked Kashmir Solidarity Day, a national holiday in the country, with another appeal for talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute that lies behind a huge buildup of troops along their eastern borders.
"If the people of Kashmir have been forced to take up arms against Indian occupation during the past decade or so, it is India which is to be blamed for this," Musharraf said while addressing a ceremony in Islamabad in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day.
"No self-respecting people can be expected to remain unmoved while their families and friends are being killed, tortured and gang-raped, their houses burned down...and humiliation of the worst kind heaped upon them through the instrument of state terrorism," he said.
Since the partition of British India in 1947, when the Hindu ruler of Muslim-majority Kashmir decided to join mainly Hindu India rather than Islamic Pakistan, Kashmir has fueled a lethal rivalry between the two countries.
Throughout Pakistan, sirens were blown and traffic stopped for a minute's silence Tuesday morning to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day, with peaceful marches around the country in support of the Kashmir cause. Banners in the Pakistani capital Islamabad decried "Indian Inhumanity in Kashmir" while gory pictures on state television showed civilians purportedly murdered by the Indian army in Kashmir.
A group of protesters burned an effigy of Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, outside the U.N. offices in Islamabad, demanding the implementation of long-standing U.N. resolutions supporting Kashmir's right to self-determination.
Tension between Pakistan and India has been triggered in the wake of an attack on India's parliament on December 13, 2001, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Jihadi groups fighting its rule in Kashmir. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire along the frontier since December, but there were no reports of clashes Monday night or Tuesday morning.
"We have said repeatedly that Pakistan wants tension-free relations with India...I take this opportunity to once again urge the Indian leadership to sit with us at the negotiating table," Musharraf said during his visit to a refugee camp in Azad Kashmir's capital Muzzaferabad on Tuesday.
India has repeatedly refused offers of peace talks, saying Pakistan must first stop alleged arming and training insurgents in Kashmir and supporting what it terms "cross-border terrorism."
Pakistan, which has detained Jihadi leaders and raided their offices, says it only offers diplomatic, political and moral support for Kashmiri self-determination. Musharraf said 700,000 Indian soldiers had been unable to end the insurgency, which he said had cost the lives of 70,000 people. India puts the death toll at around 33,000 since the freedom struggle started in 1989.
India holds 45 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan a third, and China the remainder. New Delhi considers the region an integral part of India, while Pakistan insists Kashmiris should be able to vote on their future.
"No people can be kept in perpetual bondage against their will," Musharraf said. "The sooner India realizes it, the better it will be for everyone."
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