DISPUTE ON KASHMIR

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 4

DISPUTE ON KASHMIR

‘Colonialism’ By

India

(N.Z Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Dec. 20. Mr Mohammed Ali, the Pakistan Ambassador, today issued a statement accusing India of keeping the people of Kashmir in colonial bondage. Mr Ali was replying to the Prime Minister of India (Mr Nehru), who said at a press conference today that the trouble over Kashmir began with unabashed Pakistani aggression. An Australian correspondent had suggested that India’s support of the principle of the self-determination of nations seemed inconsistent With the failure to hold a plebiscite on Kashmir. Mr Nehru replied that the Kashmir trouble had its beginning in “unabashed aggression,” by Pakistan. The United Nations Commission had acknowledged that fact and had recommended that the Pakistan Army withdraw.

For eight years Pakistan had failed to withdraw its army, and that withdrawal would be the first step towards a settlement, he said.

Mr Ali said Mr Nehru’s statement was totally contrary to facts. “The United Nations Security Council, which has been seized with this dispute since 1948, has at no time made a finding that Pakistan had committed aggression in Kashmir, nor had it upheld the Indian accusation that Pakistan had refused to withdraw her armed forces,” he said. Mr Nehru, he said, had equivocated and evaded on the question of Kashmir, demanding a unilateral Pakistan withdrawal. “Colonial Bondage* “Direct bilateral talks between the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India have been brought to naught by Mr Nehru’s adamant determination to keep the people of Kashmir in colonial bondage,” Mr Ali said. “What prevents the Indian Prime Minister from accepting the Pakistan offer, made time and again, that both nations should withdraw their armed forces completely to enable the people of Kashmir to exercise the right of selfdetermination under the aegis of the United Nations?” he asked. “The fact is that India, which is the real aggressor in Kashmir, is attempting to smear Pakistan in order to confuse the world and to divert attention from the state of terror let loose in Kashmir by the puppet Bakshi Government, propped up by 90,000 Indian bayonets, while his popular precedessor. Sheik Abdullah, ‘has been languishing in goal without trial for more than three years,” Mr Ali said.