JKLF workers plan march to LoC on October 4

Muzaffarabad, Sep 6 (IANS) The banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front has announced holding a "peaceful" freedom march towards the Line of Control (LoC) on October 4.

The announcement was made by JKLF central spokesperson Mohammad Rafiq Dar on Thursday at a news conference in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Dawn newspaper reported.

The JKLF chief Yasin Malik is currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail after being arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a case related to financing of terror and separatist organisations.

"In order to express solidarity with the besieged population of Indian occupied Kashmir, to draw attention of the international community towards the state terrorism unleashed by India in the held territory and to press it to get the lingering issue permanently and democratically resolved on a priority basis, we have taken a revolutionary decision to stage a 'peaceful people's freedom march' from Bhimber to Chakothi under the leadership of acting JKLF chairman Abdul Hameed Butt," said Dar.

"Later, we would trample down the bloody line or the so-called ceasefire line that splits the state of Jammu and Kashmir from Chakothi sector," the spokesperson added, referring to the LoC.

This decision, he said, was taken on August 30 at a joint meeting of the JKLF's most authoritative "supreme council" and the zonal working committee of "Azad Jammu and Kashmir" (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan in Rawalpindi.

Responding to a question, Dar said that if the AJK government comes up with any other date before or soon after October 4 for the cross-LoC march, the JKLF would be ready to readjust the date for the sake of national consensus.