United Jihad Council (UJC) chairman and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin has accused the Centre-appointed interlocutors of aiming to divide Jammu and Kashmir on communal lines.
In a telephonic interview to a local News Agency KNS, the Muzaffarabad-based militant commander termed the interlocutors' report 'a futile exercise'. "The report is aimed at dividing the state on communal and sectarian grounds. The interlocution was a preplanned conspiracy to divide the state on religious and communal basis," Salahuddin said.
He alleged that the panel's report was inspired by the saffron agenda. "Separatist leadership's stand on interlocutors' role has been vindicated as the report plays into the hands of the saffron brigade. It is the saffron brigade which has been demanding a separate Jammu state, union territory status to Ladakh to ensure that Kashmir is crushed with force," said Salahuddin.
The UJC is an alliance of Kashmiri militant organisations that supports the right to self-determination of people of Jammu and Kashmir or its accession to Pakistan. The UJC chairman said the interlocutors have tried to portray the Kashmir issue as a 'problem related to governance and administration'. "This report is trying to give the Kashmir issue a new color and tries to convey that improved governance, economy, law-making and social rights will solve everything," he said.
Salahuddin, 65, has been living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir since he fled Kashmir after unsuccessfully contesting the infamous 1987 elections that triggered the insurgency. Amid allegations of rigging in the elections, Salauhuddin was jailed by the then National Conference government, prompting him to pick up the gun in 1989.
{{/usCountry}}Salahuddin, 65, has been living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir since he fled Kashmir after unsuccessfully contesting the infamous 1987 elections that triggered the insurgency. Amid allegations of rigging in the elections, Salauhuddin was jailed by the then National Conference government, prompting him to pick up the gun in 1989.
{{/usCountry}}Through this report, Salahuddin said, India was trying to discredit the Kashmir's 63-year-old struggle by 'giving it a communal and sectarian twist'.
The Centre appointed a team of three interlocutors - Dileep Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and MM Ansari - after the unprecedented political unrest in the summer of 2010 in Kashmir to devise a 'political solution' to the problem. The panel submitted its report in October 2011 after meeting hundreds of people and organising many conferences in the state which was made public by union home ministry on Thursday. The report was flayed by separatists and Bharatiya Janata Party alike.