Reacting to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari's comments that relations between India and Pakistan should not be held hostage by the Kashmir dispute, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed claimed the statement was "tantamount to rubbing salt in the wounds of the Kashmiri people".

Saeed, who now heads the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawah which has been listed by the US as a terrorist group, said "history is witness that those rulers who attempted to neglect the sacrifices of oppressed Kashmiris have not lasted long in power".

"The Pakistani nation will never allow anyone to trade the blood of Kashmiris," he said, urging political parties to "rectify" their stance and "strive to please Allah instead of seeking to please the US and India".

Saeed said Zardari, whose Pakistan People's Party is set to form government, should have asked the UN to investigate alleged atrocities on Kashmiris instead of talking about promoting trade with India.

The people have voted against the US and its allies in the February 18 polls and "if the new government deviates from Pakistan's principled stance on the Kashmir issue, people will totally reject them too", he claimed.

The "movement is continuing and will continue in the future," Saeed said. "Any conspiracies against it will

never succeed."

Zardari's remarks hailed

Leaders of the ruling Congress-PDP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir have hailed Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari's remarks on Kashmir terming these as positive and realistic.

"We welcome (Zardari's) positive and realistic remarks.

I hope the emerging democratic set up in Pakistan will focus on strengthening ties with India," senior vice-president of the Jammu and Kashmir Congress Abdul Gani Vakil said.

A stable Pakistan was in the interest of the entire sub-continent, he told party workers here yesterday.

Vakil, a Social Welfare Minister in the Ghulam Nabi Azad government, said people were concerned more with economic issues and wanted peace for progress and prosperity.

In a recent TV interview, Zardari had said India and Pakistan should not be held hostage to the Kashmir issue and both could wait for future generations to resolve it in a mature manner.

Welcoming Zardari's remarks, Deputy Chief Minister and senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh said there was need to open up road links between India and Pakistan. This would facilitate thousands of tourists from South Asia to visit Kashmir, he told a public meeting at Delina in Baramulla district on Sunday.

Political instability in Pakistan was a big hurdle in way of resolving the Kashmir issue, Beigh said.