Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

I haven't seen it mentioned, but I wonder if, at all President Zardari's
comments on Kashmir could have contributed to this present violence?

Zardari’s candid remarks create furore in Pakistan
7 Oct, 2008, 0435 hrs IST, ET Bureau



NEW DELHI
: Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari’s comments describing militants in Kashmir as terrorists continued
to be met with outrage within Pakistan and in Baramulla where a group of protesters took out a protest rally.

However, the Indian establishment is delighted with this candid admission by Mr Zardari who
also said in the course of an interview to Wall Street Journal that India is not a threat to Pakistan.

Though the Indian establishment is still struggling to formulate a Pakistan policy, Mr Zardari’s statement
has raised hopes that there is scope for forward movement on key contentious issues after a very long time.

But this hope is also tempered by the knowledge that Mr Zardari’s opinion does not mirror traditional
thinking within the Pakistani military establishment or the ISI, which continues to run a proxy war against India.

Due to the outraged backlash, the Pakistani government went into damage control mode on Monday and
said that the Pakistan People Party supported the cause of Kashmir and the struggle for self-determination.

“The President has made it very clear that the just cause of Kashmir and its struggle
for self-determination has been a consistent central position of the PPP for forty years
now. There is no change in that policy,’’ a statement from the Pakistani government said.

``He has never called the legitimate aspirations of Kashmiris an expression of
terrorism, nor has he undermined the sufferings of the Kashmiri people. All other
statements about India were in context of our current bilateral relations,” said the statement.

But the Pakistani government failed to explain away Mr
Zardari’s description of Kashmiri militants as terrorists.

The statement continued to be met with outrage in Jammu and Kashmir. Over 400 protesters in
Baramulla defied a curfew to raise slogans against Mr Zardari and burnt the Pakistani president’s effigy.

According to reports this is the first time that an effigy of a Pakistani leader has been burnt in the Kashmir
Valley since April 1979. Kashmiri separatists leaders also continued to criticise Mr Zardari for the remarks.

The terror elements within Pakistan have also come out strongly against Mr Zardari for his comments supporting India.

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, called the Pakistani
president’s remarks “a clear violation and digression from the consistent policy of Pakistan”.

Pakistan has always referred to terrorists operating in Kashmir as `freedom fighters.’

This is the first time that a Pakistani leader has strayed so far from
the usual script and admitted that terrorists are operating in Kashmir.

Saeed, who now heads Jamaat-ud-Dawa which is widely regarded as a front for the LeT,
not only lambasted Mr Zardari for his remarks but also for attempts to push trade with India.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/rssarticleshow/3568130.cms

Kashmir is an area on the northern borders of India and Pakistan; officially known as Jammu & Kashmir.



http://www.gharib.demon.co.uk/

It is so sad that such a beautiful place can be so wracked with
violence. That goes for all the damn war areas in our world.

.. a more detailed history of Jammu & Kasmir, in reply ..