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The chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Yaseen Malik, said on Monday that
thousands of activists of his pro-independence Kashmiri group based in Britain had
campaigned for the Labour Party in the recent British general election.
He said the JKLF had decided to campaign for Labour after party leader Robin Cook,
now Britain's foreign secretary, had assured them that once in power Labour would
help to resolve the Kashmir issue.
This assurance, Mr Malik said, had been given to him during a five-hour meeting
with Mr Cook in Srinagar last year. Mr Cook, then Labour's chief spokesman on
foreign affairs, had visited India in the company of Lord Paul. "Mr Cook promised
that the Kashmir issue would be resolved as per the will of the people," he said.
Mr Malik described Mr Tony Blair's triumph in last Thursday's election as a
"victory for the oppressed Kashmiris. We are highly optimistic that Labour will
fulfil its commitment to Kashmiris." Unlike the Tories, who under both Margaret
Thatcher and John Major considered Kashmir to be India's internal affair, Labour
regards it as a dispute. Mr Cook had been quoted last year as saying that Britain,
as the former imperial power in the subcontinent, must accept that it had "a
special responsibility for the Kashmir dispute." This language has been echoed by
other Labour leaders, and even Mr Blair himself.
Pro-Pakistan Kashmiri leaders have also welcomed the Labour victory, though
ordinary people are largely indifferent. "Mr. Blair, it is hoped, will put his
weight behind the lovers of freedom, democracy and peace in Kashmir," Hurriyat
chief spokesman Abdul Ghani said. "The Kashmir dispute," he added, "is the legacy
of the British empire, and it is therefore Britain's moral and political duty to
pressure India and Pakistan to resolve it." Said Shabir Shah, "The time has come
for the Labour Party to complete the unfinished agenda of Partition."
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, visibly perturbed over Labour's
stance, said here on Monday that Mr Blair should concentrate on solving his "own
problems" such as Northern Ireland and European integration.
"Enough wounds have been perpetuated by that (Labour) government 50 years ago.
India and Pakistan should heal their own wounds without the intervention from any
one," he said.
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