Kashmiri separatists not to use landmines

NEW DELHI, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Separatist outfits have agreed not to use deadly weapons in their struggle against Indian rule in Kashmir.

The announcement came following an international anti-personnel mines pressure group succeeded in persuading a major alliance of Kashmiri separatist militants not to use the deadly weapons in their violent campaign against the Indian rule in the strife-torn state of Jammu & Kashmir.

The Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines in a statement claimed that the United Jihad Council has announced a ban on the use of anti-personnel mines. The announcement came at the end of a two-week mission to Kashmir by the ICBL that was subsequent to a yearlong series of activities carried out in partnership with the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, a member of the IBCL, the statement said.

The Muzaffarabad-based UJC is an alliance of 13 armed Kashmiri groups and Syed Salahuddin, the supreme commander of main militant outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen currently heads the Council. Five other non-Kashmiri groups have observer status in the alliance and UJC directives are binding upon them, an Indian Interior Ministry official said.

"The UJC’s pledge is yet another sign of the growing acceptance of the norm which prohibits anti-personnel mines because of their indiscriminate nature," the statement quotes Sylvie Brigot, ICBL executive director, as saying.

"We now encourage both India and Pakistan to consider a moratorium on new mine use and to launch comprehensive mine clearance programs," Brigot said while welcoming the UJC’s announcement.

The ICBL said most mines in Jammu & Kashmir are situated near the Line of Control. In November 2006 the ICBL conducted its first mission to Jammu & Kashmir at the invitation of the JKCCS.