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Bhim Singh tells government to disclose issues it will discuss with Pakistan

Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh has demanded a white paper on Kashmir specifically relating to the geographical issues the Bharatiya Janata Party government would like to discuss with Pakistan.

''The BJP government must disclose its hidden agenda vis-a-vis Jammu and Kashmir and tell the nation what issue they would like to discuss with Pakistan,'' he told reporters in New Delhi.

India had proposed to Pakistan to have talks on June 22 but Pakistan rejected the offer saying the talks could instead be held on June 20 in Islamabad. However, no date could be fixed.

Criticising the central leadership for not being able to persuade Pakistan to withdraw from the occupied territories, he said the only problem with Pakistan was the liberation of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, 32,500 sq miles of Jammu and Kashmir including Gilgit region. ''Let the 32,500 square miles area be vacated by Pakistan. This must be controlled by India.''

Opposing the suggestion by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah that the Line of Control be converted into the international border between the two countries, he said the only way out was the unification of PoK with Jammu and Kashmir.

Parliament has also adopted a resolution on the liberation of PoK from Pakistani occupation.

He said Pakistan had given about 4,600 square miles of Indian territory to China on a 99 year lease under an agreement signed by former Pakistani prime minister Z A Bhutto and the then Chinese premier Chou En Lai in 1963. China also must vacate that territory for any permanent solution to the issue. He criticised successive Indian governments for not being able to convey India's position to the international community.

Reiterating that the solution to the Kashmir problem lay in the unification of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed on August 13, 1947, the Panthers Party chief said the old Anglo-American gameplan to implement the Dixon formula to create a so-called 'Greater Kashmir' comprising the Kashmir valley and the Muslim majority areas of the northern parts of Jammu region, was being surreptitiously followed.

The Dixon formula was floated under an Anglo-American plan in 1949, when Pakistan refused to withdraw from the occupied territories in response to the United Nations resolution of August 13, 1948.

He said the recent migration of Kashmiri Pandits from Rajouri, Poonch and other areas of Jammu region following militant violence there was a ''conspiracy'' to achieve the objectives of the Dixon plan. ''The minorities had already been thrown out of Kashmir valley and now they were being thrown out of Jammu region also. This is what the Dixon plan's objectives were,'' he added.

''It is in the interest of the nation that all the migrants, whether from Jammu region or from the valley, are provided full security and protection to return to their homes.''

He said there were about 5,000 to 7,000 foreign mercenaries operating in Jammu region. They had been regularly infiltrating from Mendhar (Poonch) area across the LoC. Several areas in Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur and Doda were under the control of militants, he added.

UNI

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