Pakistan yesterday criticised the United States for blacklisting the Kashmiri separatist group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen as a terrorist organisation, calling the move “unjustified”.
The State Department designation bans US citizens and residents from dealing with the group and any assets found to belong to it in areas under US jurisdiction will be frozen.
“We are disappointed with the US decision in view of the fact that Kashmir is an internationally recognised dispute with UN Security Council resolutions pending implementation for the last 70 years,” Nafees Zakariya, Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters in the capital Islamabad.
The move was “completely unjustified”, he said.
The State Department pointed out that Hizbul Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the April 2014 attack in Kashmir, which injured 17 people.
Washington had already designated the group’s leader, Syed Salahuddin, a “global terrorist”.
US officials claim that Hizbul Mujahideen still has a major presence in Pakistan and uses it for launching
attacks in Kashmir.
Pakistan rejects the charge that terrorists use its territory for attacking other nations and points out that recent military operations have forced Afghan militants to flee to Afghanistan, from where they carry out attacks in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan.
After Washington announced the decision on Wednesday, several hundred activists gathered in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and chanted anti-US slogans.
“Hizbul Mujahideen is a not a terrorist organisation but stands for the sentiments and aspirations of Kashmiris and is the centre of their hopes,” read a banner carried by protesters.
The demonstrators chanted anti-India and pro-freedom slogans while condemning the US decision as they walked from Burhan Wani Chowk to Garhipan Chowk.
“You can withhold our properties and [bank] accounts if there are any [in the US], but you cannot force us to give up our legitimate struggle for freedom,” Shaikh Jamilur Rehman, secretary general of United Jihad Council (UJC), said.
“We will carry on our struggle, which is in accordance with the UN Charter, until the eviction of the last Indian soldier from our motherland,” he vowed.
The UJC is an amalgam of over a dozen groups fighting India’s occupation of Kashmir. Salahuddin serves as its chairman.
Rehman rubbished what he called “propaganda against Kashmiri separatist groups” as “an attempt to please the Narendra Modi-led Indian government.”
“Hizbul Mujahideen is an indigenous organisation, engaged in a legitimate struggle for the right to self determination enshrined in UN Security Council resolutions,” he said. “It cannot be dubbed as a terrorist organisation by any stretch of the imagination.”
“The days of America acting as the ‘Big Brother’ are numbered as another superpower, which supports the Kashmir cause, is on the rise,” Rehman said, referring to China.
Uzair Ahmed Ghazali, an organiser of the protest, regretted what he called the US turning a blind eye towards state-sponsored terrorism in held Kashmir.
“The US is also silent on terrorism unleashed by fanatic Hindus and so-called cow vigilantes on Indian Muslims,” he added.
“If anyone has to be designated as a ‘terrorist’ in today’s world, it is Indian premier Narendra Modi and Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu; but both are advancing their ghastly agendas under American patronage,” he said.
Ghulamullah Azad, a leader of the proscribed Jamaatud Dawa, termed the US decision “ridiculous” and said it would make no difference to the armed struggle in held Kashmir.
“First, they clamped a similar decision on Hafiz Mohamed Saeed; then, the did the same for Syed Salahuddin. However, the struggle in held Kashmir has not suffered a dent due to the exemplary determination of Kashmiri people … The latest decision will also meet the same fate,” he said.
People hold a banner as they chant slogans in support of Hizbul Mujahideen group during a rally in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, yesterday. The banner reads, u201cHizbul Mujahideen is not a terrorist group u2013 it represents the emotions and feelings of the people of the state and a centre of hope.u201d
