Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Rebel chieftain defends 'jihad' to join Pakistan Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Rebel chieftain defends 'jihad' to join Pakistan \BY Richard Ehrlich \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT SOPORE, India SOPORE, India - The most powerful guerrilla in Kashmir, Supreme Commander Syed Salludin, says he is leading a "jihad," or holy war, to rip this valuable state from India, attach it to Pakistan and establish a fundamentalist Islamic regime. "If someone does a theft, his hand must be cut off so society can be saved," Cmdr. Salludin said in an interview in which he defended his goal of introducing Islam's harsh "sharia" law. "But we do not cut the hand of every thief," he explained in a rural safehouse guarded by rooftop rebels with AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and hand grenades. "First the government is bound to provide the necessities of life for every citizen." The black-bearded commander leads the 15,000-strong Hezb-ul Mujahideen, or Party of Holy Warriors, the largest and best-armed of several guerrilla groups fighting what they consider "Indian occupation forces" in this northwest Indian state. He said his immediate strategy is to create a rebel-controlled corridor along the Pakistan border - which would be the first guerrilla-held territory in the state - to open up improved supply lines to the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir. Other guerrilla groups, rejecting annexation to Pakistan, fight for outright independence but are not so strong as the Hazb-ul Mujahideen because they get less support from Kashmiri sympathizers across the border. The United States and other Western nations have said the escalating fight could unleash nuclear war between Pakistan and India, both of which place high strategic value on the wealthy Himalayan region straddling their border. India defeated Pakistan in two wars fought directly over Kashmir since 1947. It now controls two-thirds of Kashmir while Pakistan holds the remainder, apart from the Aksai Chin region seized by China in a three-week war against India in 1965. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the revolt in Indian-held Kashmir escalated three years ago. Every day, the death toll of guerrillas, security forces and innocent civilians climbs. As the fighting worsens, guerrillas from other Muslim nations have illegally entered Kashmir to fight India's confused and poorly disciplined army. The most admired of these new combatants are battle-hardened veterans from Afghanistan. That nation on Pakistan's northern border, where Soviet forces were bloodied and ousted, has come to be admired by many foreign fighters as a violent campus offering sophisticated weapons training and proven tactics. "More than 4,000 Kashmiri militants have received training in Afghanistan, and at present more than 3,000 are in Afghanistan now," Cmdr. Salludin boasted in the interview. "That is a total of 7,000." The Indian government protests regularly that Pakistan is arming the Kashmiri "terrorists" in a "proxy war" against India and must be brought to heel. While rebels admit they travel back and forth to the Pakistani town of Muzzafarabad for money, weapons and ammunition, they insist the help comes only from civilians, including Kashmiri sympathizers, arms dealers and black marketeers. Pakistan, meanwhile, trumpets demands for a U.N.-supervised vote on whether Indian-held Kashmir should remain a part of India or be allowed to break away. India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, promised such a "plebiscite," but New Delhi refuses to permit it for fear that Muslim-majority Kashmir will opt out of Hindu-led India. Kashmir was divided when British colonialists partitioned the subcontinent upon granting it independence in 1947. In the interview, Cmdr. Salludin claimed broad popular support among Kashmiri civilians for his fight against India's huge armed forces. "The Indian army kill innocent masses. When we are going to hit a military convoy, we feel they will take their revenge on innocent people," he said. "In spite of that, we attack them. Then the people suffer. So, we try to hit them outside the population areas. But the people are ready for this and tell us, 'Don't lose heart.' " The government and rebels trade accusations back and forth about the killing of civilians, but there is little doubt the Indian security forces - who man sidewalk bunkers in downtown Srinagar with guns trained on passing pedestrians - have been guilty of gross abuses. Doctors at the highly respected National Institute of Medical Science say some victims have been beaten so badly that their muscles had been pulverized, allowing tiny pieces of broken muscle tissue to clog their kidneys, causing life-threatening renal failure. Cmdr. Salludin, speaking in his Sopore safehouse 30 miles northwest of Srinagar on the road to Pakistan, said, "It is in the best interest of Kashmir to become a greater Kashmir with Pakistan and make a great Islamic nation." But most Kashmiris say they do not want to join Islamic Pakistan and would rather form an independent country. Only a tiny minority of Kashmiri Muslims want their state to remain part of India. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM