Al Qaeda has no role in J

Srinagar, Aug 18: The Hizbul Mujahideen, the single largest indigenous militant group operating in Jammu and Kashmir, has ruled out presence of al Qaeda and foreign ultras in the troubled state.

In an interview with a local news agency, Kashmir News Service, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin said al Qaeda has no role in Jammu and Kashmir.

''It is a sheer propaganda that al Qaeda is in Jammu and Kashmir.

This is being carried out to get support from the US and the UK,'' the Hizb supreme commander said.

Salahudin also heads the United Jehad Council (UJC), the Muzaffarabad- based umbrella organisation of several militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

Salahuddin denied that any foreign militant was operating in Jammu and Kashmir. Since 1947, thousands of people migrated from Jammu and Kashmir to different parts of Pakistan, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Northern Areas, he added.

''There are more than five million Kashmiris and it is they who are participating in the armed struggle in Jammu and Kashmir. They are not foreigners. Most of them have properties in Jammu and Kashmir,'' the Hizb chief said.

It was reported last month that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda had opened its unit in Jammu and Kashmir.

UNI