Srinagar: Reacting to the Union Home Secretary, G K Pillai’s statement that Hizbul Mujahideen had less than 100 local militants in Jammu and Kashmir, the outfit on Monday termed it ‘extremely unrealistic.’
 “The Government of India’s leadership has forgotten the fact that every individual in Kashmir is a militant. Therefore, the number of militants in Kashmir is not only in hundreds and thousands, but in lakhs. If Pillai’s statement, which is based on wishful thinking, taken as true, what is need of keeping eight lakh armed forces in this small state and reconstituting new Ikhwani groups and requesting released commanders for forming new political groups?,” said the outfit chief spokesman, Ehsan Illahi, in a statement from Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
 Illahi claimed that the GoI knew that Hizbul Mujahideen was a peoples’ movement with enough military potential to hit any target at any time.  “During mass revolutions in Kashmir from 2008 to 2010, the outfit changed its areas of operation from cities and towns to borders areas so that the armed forced would not have any justification to open fire on civilians,” he said, adding “It is in the interest of India itself to acknowledge the disputed status of Kashmir and expressed its readiness to resolve this issue through tripartite talks as otherwise the outfit will it (Kashmir issue) would get resolved through an organized and powerful armed and political struggle.”

Lastupdate on : Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
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