Islamabad, Oct 23: Two major Kashmiri militant organizations today said they opposed a peace plan unveiled by India a day earlier, and one group threatened to block a proposed bus service that would link opposite sides of Kashmir for the first time in 55 years. "By running this bus, India wants to prove there are two Kashmirs," said Wali Hassan Baba, a spokesman for Jaish- e-Mohammed, which is outlawed in both India and Pakistan. "Our struggle is for a United Kashmir, a Kashmir which will be part of Pakistan," he said in a telephone interview with the associated press, calling new Delhi's plan "a deception." "As long as India is occupying Kashmir, no bus will run from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad," said Baba. Another guerrilla commander, Syed Salahuddin of the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, denounced the bus service as an effort by India to convert the cease-fire line in Kashmir into a permanent border.

Hezb-ul Mujahedeen is one of the oldest and largest Islamic Guerrilla Groups in the 13-year Kashmir insurgency, which has cost an estimated 63,000 lives.


The two groups had no comment on India's plan to hold talks with Hurriyat leaders in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Pakistan government welcomed the Indian initiative, but said it was disappointed that New Delhi failed to include new talks on the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which it considers is the core issue of their conflict.


Bureau Report