Posted on 07/02/2002 5:56:58 AM PDT by kattracks
July 2— MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A pro-Pakistan militant group battling Indian rule in disputed Kashmir said on Tuesday it had set up a "death squad" to eliminate Indian-held Kashmir's chief minister, his son and top aides.
"Our prime target is puppet chief minister Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah and ministers of his government," Ghulam Rasool, Pakistan-based chief of the radical Jamiat-e-Mujahideen (JM) group told Reuters.
JM is one of the two rebel groups India banned in April under its controversial anti-terror laws and is also a member of the main anti-India United Jihad Council (UJC) guerrilla alliance.
Omar Abdullah is junior external affairs minister in Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's cabinet and has recently replaced his father as head of their National Conference party.
"Apart from top leadership, the squad has been given the task to target...those office-bearers and supporters of the National Conference who continue to play a role to perpetuate Kashmir's subjugation," Rasool said.
He said the squad led by JM deputy chief commander Tahirul Islam would not target those National Conference members "who are inactive and have ceased to play any role in the (Kashmir) state's subjugation by Indians."
In a separate warning, an alliance of anti-India militant groups said that those trying to take part in elections due in revolt-racked Indian Kashmir in October would face "exemplary punishment."
A UJC statement on Tuesday also called on the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC), the main separatist alliance based in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir, to take a clear stand on the planned elections for the state assembly.
The APHC says it will not take part in the elections, but said last month its leaders should be allowed to visit Pakistan to negotiate a truce with guerrillas to help resolve the dispute over the Himalayan region.
"If they adopted a confused policy because of any pressure then the Kashmiri people would remove them from their political leadership and...would be free to decide their course of action on their own," said UJC statement issued in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.
The warnings came as tensions eased between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India who have been engaged in a military stand-off over the region since December.
India, which rules about 45 percent of Kashmir, accuses Pakistan of training and arming separatist militants. Pakistan, which rules just over a third of Kashmir, denies the charge and says it only gives moral and political support to "freedom fighters." China holds the remainder of the territory.
Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
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