BHUTTO MAKES NEW MOVE ON KASHMIR

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 18

BHUTTO MAKES NEW MOVE ON KASHMIR

(By

RALPH JOSEPH)

TEHERAN.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, gave an indication of what his next line of action on the Indian subcontinent will be when he made moves recently to revive the Kashmir issue.

Coming as it did when the Indo-Pakistan detente seemed to be getting under way, Bhutto’s new gambit puzzled some observers.

Ever since he came to power after the Indo-1 Pakistan war over) Bangladesh in December! 1971, Bhutto has kept a' low profile on the Kashmir issue, ducking newsmen’s questions on the subject.

Apparently his first con-; cern was to secure the return of Pakistani prisoners; of war. With the prisonersj now returning, Bhutto appears to have decided to begin focusing on Kashmir once again, and started a tour of Azad (Pakistan-held) Kashmir in early November, where he met several Kashmir leaders.

He told a rally at Pulundri (near Poonch) that he would within a week or 10 days make a call for a general strike in Indian-occupied Kashmir and hoped that the strike would be observed throughout Kashmir, on the; Indian side of the cease-fire line.

: The next day at Mirpur i some students in the crowd he was addressing inter- [ rupted him with the demand: !“We want guerrilla war to liberate Kashmir.” “I like these slogans,” Bhutto replied. “because they are revolutionary slogans. These slogans reflect the spirit of the people.” He added however, that during his five-day tour of Azad Kashmir, no-one had volunteered for such a war. But he told the students that decisions to start guerrilla wars were not taken at public rallies. OPERATE IN SECRET Guerrillas, he said, operated in secret, and he recalled Mao Tse-tung’s dictum that a guerrilla should be “like a fish in water” among the people. He then invited those youths who wished to join a guerrilla effort in Kashmir to join Pakistan's Special Services Guards, to gel commando training. Pakistani students must be the most chauvinistic in the world, but this is the first •time a Pakistani leader has invited those who call for I war to come forward to face the bullets. Bhutto’s new move on Kashmir has won approval ;in other quarters in Pakistan ■ also. The sedate daily “Dawn,” which as a representative of right-wing opinion has been a steady critic iof Bhutto since his assumption of office came out in support of him for once.

KASHMIR SETTLEMENT “Dawn” saw Bhutto’s Kashmir gambit more as a manoeuvre in getting the Kashmir issue settled than as an effort to stir up dirty water. In an editorial the paper said: "As he (Bhutto) indicated, the completion of the repatriation of the p.o.w.s. and the civilian internees will, in two oi

three months time, set the stage for the next round of talks between India and Pakistan. “The issues likely to figure in these talks may be the resumption of diplomatic relations, trade and post and telegraphic links. The Kashmir issue might be taken up later. “Mr Bhutto did not say; when that stage will come, but he emphasised that Pakistan was ready to plead the case of the Kashmiri people. Last year’s Simla Agreement stipulated ‘a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir’ through negotiations between India and Pakistan. Though these may yet take time to be arranged, Mr Bhutto has done well to establish contact and rapport with the Kashmiris.” HINT TO KISSINGER Bhutto's Kashmir tour and pronouncements came just before his scheduled meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State, Dr Henry Kissinger, and may have been intended as a hint to Kissinger that the Kashmir issue was still very much alive, and an indirect invitation to him to apply to the issue (at a later stage obviously) his genius for bringing about compromises on stiff international situations. The references to guerrilla warfare may have helped to liven up the proceedings during the Kashmir tour, but it would be interesting, to say the least, if Bhutto would be willing to start another guerrilla war when he already has one going in his own back yard. Official sources in Pakistan keep confirming, in an indirect sort of way, that guerrilla fighting and manoeuvres in Baluchistan

province have been continuing unabated through the autumn. An armed forces

public relations office in Quetta, for instance, put out a press release saying that the Pakistan Army had, on November 6, “entered Kahan, the secure and wellguarded village of Sardar ;Khair Bakhsh Marri (a Baluchi rebel leader now under ‘arrest),” which was consid-; ered out of reach by any; government functionary as Dansar had been in the' Jhalawan area.

GUARDED BY FORT “About 50 miles from Dera Bugti.” the press re-; lease continued, “Kahan is long considered the capital of the Marri area, flanked on all sides by rising mountains and protected by dangerously narrow defiles. A fort guards it against outside encroachment. “The fort was built about 100 years ago by the ancestors of Khair Bakhsh Marri to serve many purposes. It [was used as a sort of garrison for the armed tribesmen loyal to the Sardar.”

Meanwhile, Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti, the Baluchi leader who played a key role in revealing the existence of a secessionist plot in Baluchistan and who, as a reward, was appointed governor of Baluchistan by Bhutto in February, after the dismissal of Ghaus Bakhsh

, Bizenjo (also currently under arrest), has resigned from his post. His resignation, Bhutto took pains to explain later, was connected with the change in the political set-up following the introduction of the new constitution in Pakistan. Under this the real executive power in the country rests with the Prime Minister, not the President, and in the provinces with the chief ministers, not the governors (who are constitutionally representatives of the president). C i The new set-up left Bugti la virtual figurehead in the provincial capital, Quetta. :Mir Ghulam Qadir, a relatively unimportant political figure compared to Akbar Bugti, is currently holding : the post of Baluchistan chief minister. Bugti cannot get 'the post unless he gets himself elected to the Baluchistan assembly. Meanwhile, there have been consistent reports that! Bhutto is trying to arrive at some sort of political settleIment with the National' iAwami Party (whose presi'dent in Baluchistan is Khair ißakhsh Marri) to normalise ! the situation in Baluchistan. 'As of now, the arrested BaJuchi N.A.P. leaders have not been brought to trial, indicating perhaps that Bhutto is 'trying to permit himself' some leverage in dealing Iwith them. Bhutto’s representatives have been talking to the Ba- ; luchi leaders in prison, and Akbar Bugti was also reported to be planning to make the trip to Sihala pris-i on to meet them.