MUZAFFARABAD: The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation (JKLF) has agreed to call off its protest sit-in near the Line of Control (LOC) upon the insistence of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and the United Nations Military Observer Group of India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) on Wednesday.
Last week, AJK police place containers and patrolled the border town of Jaskool – eight kilometres from the LoC — to keep JKLF supporters from crossing the border into Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
Earlier, marchers had been staging sit-ins on the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar road which has now come to halt.
Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider reached Jaskool to persuade the marchers to end their protest.
A delegation led by the AJK PM also met with UN observers in Muzaffarabad, and called for an end to the curfew in IOK.
Speaker AJK Legislative Assembly Shah Ghulam Qadir, Minister Transport Nasir Hussain Dar, Liberation Front’s Abdul Hameed Butt, Saleem Haroon, Dr Touqeer Gillani, Abdul Raheem Andrabi and Raffique Dar were also part of the delegation which held negotiations with UNMOGIP representatives.
The delegation urged the UN to send its fact-finding mission to IOK, pressurize India into restoring the constitutional status of IOK and resolve the Kashmir dispute in light of the will of the people of Kashmir.
Speaking on the occasion, PM Haider said that the Indian government was reluctant to allow entry to UN observers in IOK “in order to hide atrocities,” however, there were no such restrictions in AJK.
“India has created a humanitarian crisis in the occupied valley besides targeting civilians along the LoC. The UN must take serious notice of the situation and help Kashmiris realise their right to self-determination,” the AJK PM said.
“We respect the sentiments of the people of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and thank them for not crossing the LOC,” he said, adding, “It was painful for me to stop them; time will come when this bloody LoC will not be there.”
“We stopped JKLF people as a measure to protect precious lives from possible Indian firing from across the LoC, but time is not far when we all will cross it.”
