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JKLF weighs bid to cross LoC

Raja Asghar in Islamabad

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front today said it would review its plan to peacefully cross the Line of Control in Kashmir next week after India and Pakistan both warned against the move.

Amanullah Khan, chairman of a faction of the JKLF, told Reuters that pending a final decision, the group is going ahead with preparations to cross over into India on October 4.

The JKLF will take thousands of followers across the de facto border between the two countries even at the risk of being shot, he said.

Khan said the group's central executive committee would meet on Thursday at Rawalakot in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and announce a final decision on Friday.

"We will consider all aspects of the situation and inform all concerned of whatever we decide," Khan said by telephone from Rawalakot, a town close to the spot where the group plans to cross over, at Madarpur in Poonch district.

Pakistan advised the group on Thursday to call off the plan, saying it could lead to bloodshed. The advice was in response to an Indian statement that Pakistan would be held responsible if the LoC was breached.

Khan said the JKLF would weigh Pakistan's request, besides reports in Pakistani newspapers quoting Indian military sources as saying the Indian Army would put up signboards near the border to ask the marchers not to cross over.

"The objective is to tell the world, in particular the world conscience, that we do not approve of the LoC nor would we accept its conversion into a permanent Indo-Pakistan border," he said.

Khan said 20,000 to 100,000 people could march on October 4 and a JKLF code of conduct to be announced later would bar them from carrying any weapons that day.

UNI

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