'Don't force POK residents to be Pakis'

The man, who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore from Srinagar in 1971 and set it afire, has demanded that residents of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir be freed from a forced obligation to swear by accession to Pakistan.

Kashmiri militant Hashim Qureshi now lives in self-exile in Holland from where he campaigns for Kashmir through newspaper articles and interviews. He has recently written on POK or Azad Kashmir as the Pakistanis call it. A misnomer, he says, as people living there are by no standard free.

For the last 50 years, he said the POK people have laboured untiringly in Europe, West Asia and other lands to stay alive and make ends meets. Despite the turmoil in the Kashmir valley, he pointed out, very few people have left for foreign lands.

He regretted that POK residents, who worked abroad, sent millions of dollars to Pakistan, but to no avail. There were no industries in POK to provide jobs to its young people. The young people often did menial jobs in Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and other Pakistani cities.

Qureshi alleged that the Pakistani government had deprived the POK people of millions of dollars that should have come to them as their share of the Managla dam royalty. Thousands of people, who were displaced when the dam was being constructed, did not receive any compensation or employment at the dam.

He also alleged that the rulers in Islamabad propped up governments of their choice in POK through farcical elections. Sardar Abdul Qayyam Khan, installed by Islamabad as POK prime minister and president, he further alleged, had misappropriated Rs 540 million from the Kashmir liberation cell.

After splitting with Amanullah Khan, Qureshi now heads the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party with its headquarters in Dieman, the Netherlands.

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