Pakistan Reaffirms Support for Kashmiri Separatists

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif marked Pakistan’s 51 years of independence Friday with a promise of continued support for separatists fighting India in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Sharif said in his nationwide address that violence in Kashmir will “force India to come to the negotiation table.”

Pakistan and India have fought two wars over Kashmir since both gained independence from Britain in 1947. India celebrates its independence day today.

Both countries claim the predominantly Muslim region; Hindu-dominated India controls two-thirds of Kashmir, while Muslim Pakistan controls the rest.

India accuses Pakistan of arming Muslim guerrillas in Kashmir fighting for independence or unification with Pakistan, while Pakistan accuses India of violating human rights in its crackdown on the militants.

Pakistan says it offers only political and moral support to the separatists, and Sharif said that support will continue as long as “Kashmiris are victim of Indian atrocities.”

India and Pakistan regularly exchange gunfire across the border in Kashmir, and the exchanges have become more heated in the past month.

India accused Pakistani intelligence officials Friday of kidnapping an embassy official and his 3-year-old son in Islamabad, the capital, holding them for an hour and asking the man to become an informer.

Ajay Gupta, who works in the Indian Embassy in Islamabad, was warned that if he didn’t agree to become a spy, his wife would be kidnapped and his son harmed, the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry refused to comment.