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Militants reinstate Hezb-ul Mujahedeen into their ranks

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October 24, 2000 

ISLAMABAD, (AP) - The guerrilla group, Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, ostracized by fellow rebels after agreeing to a cease fire with India, was returned Monday to the fold.

The United Jehad Council, an organization representing 15 guerrilla groups battling Indian troops in Indian-ruled Kashmir Monday reinstated Hezb-ul Mujahedeen at an emergency meeting Monday.

The council also allowed Hezb-ul Mujahedeen chief, Syed Salahuddin to return as council chairman.

"The United Jehad Council is satisfied with the activities of Hezb-ul Mujahedeen workers and has restored the membership of Hezb-ul Mujahedeen," said a statement issued by the United Jehad council.

The Hezb-ul Mujahedeen cease fire collapsed after two weeks when Indian refused to accept Pakistan at the negotiation table.

India said it would talk to the militant groups, but would not open negotiations with Pakistan until it stopped assistance to the 11-year insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Pakistan denies giving direct assistance to the militants, but is sympathetic to their cause and offers moral and political support.

However the militant groups all have headquarters in Pakistan. A large gathering of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, another militant group, was held last weekend in the southern port city of Karachi.

At that meeting, demonstrations were given of mock ambushes of Indian soldiers.

Militants are demanding Kashmir, which was divided between India and Pakistan 53 years ago, be reunited and given either outright independence or allowed to join Islamic Pakistan.

Hindu India's part of Kashmir is the country's only state which is dominated by Muslims.

Both Pakistan and India lay claim to a united Kashmir.

Pakistan is demanding a United Nations resolution, passed in 1948 and still on the books, be implemented which would give Kashmiris on both sides of the troubled border the right to vote for either union with Pakistan or India.

The nagging Kashmir dispute shot to international prominence in 1998 when both India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests and declared themselves nuclear powers.

Both countries have agreed to a moratorium on further testing, but so far neither India or Pakistan has signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, despite pressure from the United States.