Geelani rejects any India-Pakistan ''accord'' on Kashmir

Srinagar, Apr 22 (UNI) Breakaway Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani today rejected outright any agreement between India and Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir which was not in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the state.

''We will not accept any solution that is against the wishes and aspirations of one crore and thirty lakh people of Jammu and Kashmir or goes against the right to self-determination. We will never compromise with the sacrifices of hundreds and thousands of people since 1947,'' Mr Geelani told a mammoth gathering at Eidgah here soon on his arrival from New Delhi.

He said any solution to the long-festering Kashmir issue could be arrived at only through the right to self-determination.

''Jammu and Kashmir is not a land or territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. It concerns the fate and future of millions of people,'' the Hurriyat chairman said.

He said the Kashmir issue had entered a critical stage and the people should be ready to launch a decisive struggle to achieve the desired goal.

The firebrand leader was apparently referring to media reports, quoting Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, suggesting that New Delhi and Islamabad had reached an ''agreement'' to resolve the Kashmir issue, and it was being given a final shape.

According to a leading Pakistani daily, The Nation, Mr Kasuri said the two nations were moving towards a settlement to the Kashmir issue that might not be the first best choice for all the three parties concerned -- India, Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir -- but could surely be the second best.

He said the finalised ''Kashmir package'' would be presented before Pakistan's parliament for approval.

Declining to give the details of the package, Mr Kasuri said the two countries were yet to take certain steps to create a conducive atmosphere before announcing the agreement.

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