india

Updated: Dec 06, 2014 14:01 IST

Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed criticised New Delhi on Friday for conducting what he termed were sham elections in Kashmir and said “the battle of Indian subcontinent is inevitable”.

Saeed also asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “visiting Kashmir again and again”, saying this was part of a larger conspiracy to silence the people of the state.



The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief addressed a party convention in Lahore on a day alleged Pakistan-sponsored militants staged a string of attacks in the Valley.



“Ghazwae Hind is inevitable, Kashmir will be freed, 1971 will be avenged and Ahmedabad Gujrat victims will get justice Insha Allah,” Saeed tweeted.



Thousands of people arrived in Lahore this week to participate in the two-day convention that began at the Minar-e-Pakistan grounds on Friday. Many of those attending are volunteers and members of the JuD recruited after the outfit carried out relief work in the country through its social welfare wing, the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF).



The BJP wanted to win in Kashmir by foul means to give an impression to the world that Kashmir was not a disputed territory, said Saeed. “We will not let that happen.”



The JuD chief said he wanted to get all Pakistani political parties on one platform so they could have a common policy on Kashmir.



“We should work in a manner so that there is no confusion over what our stand is,” he said.



Saeed said his organisation would continue to “help their Kashmiri brethren on the other side of the border”. In his hour-long speech, he also vowed to extract revenge from India for the role he said New Delhi played in Pakistan’s split in 1971.



“No one can stop us in our just struggle,” he said. “They are conspiring against us and India wants us to abandon our nuclear programme”.



The JuD chief said the US and Indian governments were trying to silence him, and praised Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for raising the Kashmir issue in the United Nations without being cowed by the pro-India lobby in Islamabad.

"If India can send troops to Afghanistan to help the US, then Mujahideen have every right to go to Kashmir and help their brethren," he said.



The two-day JuD congregation, held with logistical support from the Pakistan government, concluded Friday.

The Nawaz Sharif government had run two special trains from Karachi and Hyderabad in view of the JuD event.

'Mainstreaming of terrorism'

India said Pakistan's support to UN-designated terrorist Saeed and his JuD was "nothing short of mainstreaming of terrorism."



"This was an event which took place in national monument in Pakistan. It was an event (for which) large number of police personnel were deployed.



"And it was an event by an organisation which is proscribed not only by India but the US, the UK, Australia and the UN... Also it was addressed by an individual who is designated as a terrorist by the UN Securitry Council," external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.

(With PTI inputs)

