Salahuddin asks Islamabad to stand either by Kashmiris or by their killer

Reiterating his claim that attack on India’s Pathankot Airbase was carried out by the Kashmiri fighters, United Jihad Council (UJC) chairman Syed Salahuddin has warned Islamabad against a crackdown on militants, terming it “dismaying.”

He also asked Islamabad to “give up hypocrisy” and stand either by the side of the freedom seeking Kashmiris or their tormenter – India.

“Pakistan is not only an advocate but also a party to the longstanding Kashmir dispute and therefore the Pakistani people, government and media should play the role of a patron rather than of an adversary,” he said at a press conference in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday.

Around two hundred people, mostly migrants and former militants, were also present in the Press Club where Salahuddin spoke to media in his first public appearance after early this month’s Pathankot attack.

Surprisingly, unlike previous occasions his guards were not brandishing guns, but just batons during his press talk.

“Support to the slain (Kashmiris) and friendship with the slayer (India) cannot go hand in hand,” remarked the burly bearded leader.

The razor-edged remarks by Salahuddin came in the wake of Islamabad’s condemnation of the recent attack on Pathankot airbase, responsibility of which was claimed by UJC, a conglomerate of around a dozen militant groups fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

“India has been mercilessly killing the Kashmiris, day in day out. Every day breaks like a doomsday in Kashmir, but nobody calls it terrorism… Nobody bothers to ask (Narendra) Modi to stop that tyranny,” he said.

He asserted that Pathankot was purely a military target, struck by the mujahideen at the peril of their lives, “but ironically from (Pakistani) defence minister to all else spoke bad about them (fighters).”

“We are at a loss to understand that whether they (Pakistani officials) are concerned about the interests of the country that feeds them or that of its enemy?”

“Khawaja Asif Sahib, we are not terrorists, we are legitimate freedom fighters, struggling for our usurped rights for the last 68 years in accordance with the UN charter,” he said, naming Pakistani defence minister.

“If a soldier from Delhi, Madras, Nagaland and elsewhere in India can kill our children, molest our womenfolk and torch our properties in our motherland, why can’t we hit them back in their territory?”

 “If attacking unarmed civilians is allowable to them, why it’s forbidden for us to attack the armed military personnel?”

Of the Pathankot attackers, he said his alliance not only owned them, but also felt proud of them.

“They are from us… We have been patronizing them and feel proud of it. I can claim with certainty that there is not a single non-Kashmiri fighter among them. Yes, some of them may be living in Kashmir and some as a refugee in Pakistan.”

He pointed out that after receiving telephonic intercepts from India, Pakistan had constituted a high-powered committee from its counter terrorism department.

But, he lamented, before the committee could start its task, Islamabad launched crackdown on militants, arresting them and sealing their offices.

“What was the rationale behind the arrest of Maulana Masood Azhar,” he said of Jaish-e-Muhammad chief.

He said the crackdown was not only dismaying but it had also sent a wrong across the divide – a message of anguish and despair.

“Are you happy that the bullet should be fired, women molested and settlements torched only in the territory of Kashmir? Why you become sleepless, when there is an action (by militants) against a military target outside Kashmir?”

He vowed that as long as India would continue to employ barbarism in Kashmir, Pathankot like actions would continue to happen.

“If the savage Indian forces do not refrain from coward acts of brutality against innocent women and children, we will retaliate in any part of India and we are capable enough to do so,” he threatened.

He asked Pakistan’s political and military leadership to remain wary of Indian prime minister’s policies of deceit and backstabbing.

Regarding Gilgit-Baltistan status, he said Islamabad should give maximum constitutional rights to them, but should not provide any excuse to India to annex the territories under its occupation.

Salahuddin also rejected India-Pakistan talks as a “useless exercise.”

He recalled that there had been more than 150 rounds of talks between Islamabad and New Delhi in the past, but Kashmir was never discussed as a core issue.

“India uses dialogue process as a ploy to hoodwink the international community and gain time to suppress the armed struggle in Kashmir. She may be able to befool the world, but not us.”

… Tariq Naqash