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Pak cops fight pitched battles to halt JKLF

Muzammil Pasha in Hajira, Pakistan

The Pakistani police today fought pitched battles and fired tear gas to stop a march by hundreds of pro-independence activists across a military control line into the Indian side of Kashmir, witnesses said.

They said despite a security crackdown, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front supporters gathered at Hajira, 12 km west of the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The police used teargas and fired bullets in the air to disperse the marchers, who gathered in small groups throughout the Hajira valley to avoid police checkpoints.

About 1,000 people forced their way through police lines and marched towards Madarpur village near the LoC, witnesses said. ''We want freedom, freedom is our right,'' the crowd chanted as they broke through the police cordon. Police and activists also clashed in nearby Rawalakot town, some 80 km northeast of Islamabad, after JKLF chairman Amanullah Khan emerged from several days of hiding later today to march towards Hajira with several hundred supporters.

Witnesses said the marchers broke through police lines, and several people were injured by tear gas by police beatings. ''Our struggle will continue,'' the marchers chanted as they marched outside of Rawalakot with Khan leading them. Police detained activists ahead of the march earlier, a JKLF spokesman said from Rawalakot, and that police had detained more than 50 activists this morning.

Yesterday, the police said they had detained nearly 120 people in the last four days to stop the march, which a government minister said was ''suicide''. The JKLF planned the march to oppose the existence of the 720-kms LoC, drawn in 1972. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief plans to attend the Commonwealth summit in Durban, South Africa, in November, and media reports have suggested initial contacts, possibly at foreign minister level, could take place then.

Meanwhile, a state of high alert is being maintained along the LoC to thwart the JKLF attempt to cross the LoC.

The Indian Army has been put on high alert along the LoC, particularly in the Poonch sector.

Top police and administrative authorities are camping in the Poonch area to monitor the situation, official sources said.

The defence sources said that though Pakistani troops had announced that they would not allow the JKLF activists to cross over into Indian territory, ''our troops are being put on high alert just to be on safer side''.

The JKLF, which wants Kashmir to be independent of both India and Pakistan, had in 1993 attempted to cross the LoC from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir into the Indian side but the attempt was foiled by the Pak troops.

Reuters, UNI

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