ISLAMABAD, June 28 (1992): Pakistan on Sunday banned a peace conference called by Kashmiri separatists, saying it would harm a Moslem uprising in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

A government spokesman said the meeting called by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) for July 1-3 would deflect world attention from “Indian repression and terror.”

The spokesman, quoted by the official APP news agency, said the JKLF had not consulted Islamabad when it called the meeting at Rawalakot in Pakistani-ruled Azad (free) Kashmir.

He said Pakistan did not consider the conference would help to reach an early solution of the Kashmir dispute with India.

“Rather it would undermine the ongoing freedom struggle in Indian-held Kashmir,” he said. “As such it (the Pakistani government) is opposed to the holding of the conference…and disallows it.”

Islamabad issued the ban a day after India, Pakistan’s arch foe, condemned the meeting as illegal and said it would discourage Indians from attending it.

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