Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 19, 2001
Founding father of the Jammu &
Kashmir Liberation Frot (JKLF) and hijacker of Indian Airlines plane in
1971 Hashim Qureshi today criticised Pakistan for calling him an in Indian
agent and said the ISI was never reconciled to the fact that Kashmiris
could have their own identity.
Qureshi, who later formed Jammu
and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party, said his return to India had caused
"much of a discomfort for the Pakistani rulers and their agents." In a
statement, issued by his office in Holland, where he spent nearly two decades
in exile, he said, "I laughed at the Pakistani media dancing to the tune
of its masters in the ISI and terming me as an Indian agent."
Qureshi, who was arrested on December
29 last year at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, said Pakistan
and its agents had only seen 'freedom fighters' like Ammanullah Khan, who
had sold themselves to agencies like the ISI. "Actually, the ISI can never
compromise with the fact that a Kashmiri has his own identity. I am not
Ammanullah Khan, who will first ask for withdrawal of all cases and then
come to India, but instead I would like to fight out my cases," he said.
Qureshi, against whom the Jammu
and Kashmir police filed a chargesheet recently and the case will come
for hearing on March 20, said Ammanullah Khan had not even visited the
Gilgit area (his birth-place), which is under the oppressive rule of Pakistan.
Qureshi, who after hijacking the
Fokker-Friendship to Pakistan, said that whosoever spoke the truth in that
country was branded as an Indian agent.
He said the Pakistani media had
described his return as a surrender to the Indian authorities. Lamenting
the attitude of the media in Pakistan, Qureshi said, "When my mother-in-law
was seriously ill, my wife had sought visa for Pakistan, which was disgracefully
turned down by the authorities."
"We had faxed the copies to Pakistan
media, but none of them had the guts to print the appeal as otherwise they
would have disobeyed their intelligence agency masters," he said. Qureshi
said, "It was completely futile to writer more about Ammanullah Khan and
other so-called Kashmir leaders there as they survive in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir on the dead bodies of Kashmiri youth," Pledging his full support
to the Centre's peace initiative in the state, Qureshi said, "I have come
here to support Vajpayee's peace initiative and we want the end of oppression
and bloodshed in Kashmir, whoever be the victim."
