Rogue police-army ring kill hapless civilians for cash rewards and promotions
“Jo chup rahay gey zuban-e-khanjar laho pukaray ga aasteen ka” (the dagger may not speak for its action but the blood on the hands of the killer would speak). The recent exposure of shock-killing of five civilians, who had gone missing in the past over one year, in fake encounters by the personnel of special operation group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police and the army has established the apt execution of the adage. And the massive search hundreds of Kashmiris began for their missing ones in the aftermath of the killing-scam speaks of the magnitude of such incidents carried out by the men in khaki just to earn cash rewards and departmental promotions.
There is no authentic record on the number of persons that have disappeared in Kashmir ever since armed trouble erupted in the state in 1989-90. Even the official statistics have reckless variation. According to Chief Minister Mr Ghulam Nabbi Azad 1074 persons have disappeared in the state. Former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed (in 2003) said that only 60 persons were missing of whom, he said, many could have crossed over to Pakistan for arms training. However just a few days before Mufti’s revelation, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, then law minister in Muftis cabinet, had told the state assembly that 3744 persons were missing. The non-government organizations and human rights groups put the figure between 8000 to 10000 persons.
Whatever the truth, one can little afford to ignore the magnitude, sensitivity and seriousness of the problem, more particularly when those deemed to be protectors would turn out to be predators. Not a single day passes, ever since five missing civilians were found buried in graveyards in Ganderbal area as “Pakistani cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit killed in gunfights with SOG and army troops”, the hapless relatives of missing persons march through the streets of Srinagar and demand that whereabouts of their missing ones be revealed.
“Hamare khoye hoiye kahan hien” (where are our missing ones) reads a banner at Koker Bazar in Lal Chowk. The photograph of a local youth Mohammad Saeed was pasted on bottom of the banner. Saeed is alleged to have been picked up by personnel of CRPF at Regal Chowk in 1990. His whereabouts are not known since then.
There is a man who says his brother — a Special Police official — was picked up from home and tortured to death. Then a fake encounter was organised to stage his death. There is a father Abdul Rasheed Beigh of Nowshehra Srinagar — whose photographer son was picked up by the SOG in 1997. Beig then wrote a booklet, chronicling a father’s travails.
Ghulam Mohammad Bhat of Nowhatta personally visited the newspaper offices to tell the tale of his son’s “forced disappearance”. “Some plain-clothed persons picked up my son Mohammad Yaseen, outside a mosque at Jabgaripora on March 2, 2000 when he was coming out after offering night prayers. The same night security forces raided our house and searched Yaseen’s room. Since then we don’t know his whereabouts. We have searched him in every jail, police station, security camp but of no avail”, he said. 48-year old lady Parveen Ahanger of Batamaloo has been fighting a lonely battle to know the whereabouts of her son, who was arrested by security forces in 1990.
The list is endless. The relatives of missing persons have now gathered under the banner of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) to launch a joint search for their missing ones. “We are now psychologically prepared for everything. If they have killed him, we want the body so that we can give our son a decent burial”, said Ms Parveen Ahanger, who heads the Association.
Ghulam Nabbi Azad
The exposure of the heinous crime committed by a ring of rogue police and security men was a major embarrassment for the chief minister Ghulam Nabbi Azad. His trouble had furthered as the exposure came at a time when the state assembly was in session and the opposition National Conference was ready with all the fire and cylinders to target the government. But the chief minister exhibited an unprecedented amount of courage, wit and boldness by taking the initiative into his own hands. He asked the bosses in the police to come down heavily on the personnel and officers responsible for staging fake encounters for “promotions and cash rewards”. Five policemen, including SSP Hansraj Parihar and DSP Ram Bahdur were arrested.
The chief minister left the opposition thinking for other ideas when he ordered judicial probe into the fake encounter killings. He trod miles by promising probe in all the cases of disappearances since 1990.
What goes to Mr Azad’s credit more is that he is the first chief minister who showed concern and took cognizance of the civilian killings. Custodial deaths and disappearances have been a perennial feature in all the governments (including governor’s rule) that have come up in the state since 1990.
Abdul Rasheed Beigh, whose son Fayaz Ahmad disappeared in 1997 had knocked at the door of then chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah almost daily but little to awaken his conscience. Tasleem, Akhtar, wife of Nazir Ahmad Deka, who includes among five civilians killed as Pakistani militant by the SOG in Ganderbal, said that she visited the residence of PDP chief Mahbooba Mufti several times to seek her help in finding her missing husband but Ms Mufti did not even grant her audience.
But given all the praise and appreciation Mr Azad would deserve, it is unlikely to lessen the problems for the chief minister. More than some outward threat, Mr Azad has been entangled from within. The PDP, which is a partner in the government, is not ready to share any blame in the government. The PDP wants to take credit only for the good things going on in the government, the vile and vice could only be of other partners. This fact came crying when the Ganderbal civilian killings-scam surfaced. More than a responsible partner in the government, the PDP behaved like the opposition. It flung all the filth it could find on the Congress and squarely held the chief minister responsible for it.
Mufti Mohammad Sayed
The PDP-Congress relations appeared to be touching breaking point when the PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed wrote chief minister Ghulam Nabbi Azad to withdraw his security. Other PDP leaders followed their patron and President Mahbooba Mufti, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Muzaffar Hussain Baigh and many more also asked for withdrawal of security. It looked no less than a bizarre thing that Mahbooba Mufti made this demand while talking to media persons under the heaviest security cover around her official Fairview house at Gupkar.
As if to maintain that she meant what the PDP say, Ms Mahbooba gave a slip to her security guards and along with Ghulam Hassan Mir visited the holy shrine at Aishmuqam in Anantnag. The PDP leaders kept their visit as the secret and telephoned media organizations of their venture without security only after they reached back to their secured residences in Srinagar. The PDP filed another missive to the chief minister to hold discussions on the issue of withdrawal of armed troops back to the barracks and abolition of hate laws. Mufti has written a formal letter to the chief minister in this regard and has sought a debate and discussion on the issue in the cabinet.
Keen observers believe that the PDP’s embarrassment for the chief minister is unlikely to see any end. These are going to increase in the days to come as the PDP ideologues are working out on a plan to dominate the psyche of the people till the assembly elections are held next year. Political pandits have a consensus that the PDP’s moves are aimed at influencing voters in the assembly elections, due next year. PDP contested the 2002-assembly election almost on a separatist agenda. The PDP leaders, more particularly, Mufti Mohammad Sayed and his daughter Ms Mahbooba Mufti touched the emotional chord by raising the issue like human rights violations by security forces, dialogue with militant leaders and withdrawal of special powers to security forces. It is widely believed that the PDP leadership is out again with the same slogans and wants to make maximum use of these slogans before the elections.
Right from Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of hard-line faction of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, to the opposition National Conference President Omer Abdullah, there seems a considered opinion that the PDP is virtually out with a campaign for elections. Both Geelani and Omer publicly blasted the PDP leadership for trying to make political capital out of “human blood”. Syed Ali Geelani described the PDP outcry on fake encounters as “makarana siysat—politics of duplicity with an eye on next elections” and alleged that when PDP was in power, hundreds of civilians and militant commanders were killed staged encounters.
Muftis are reported to have backing of a strong section of political and intelligence bureaucracy in New Delhi, and they are made aware of possible initiatives on Kashmir before hand. It is against this backdrop Syed Ali Geelani called Mufti Mohammad Sayed “the most trusted lieutenant of New Delhi and is taken into confidence in all the decisions regarding Kashmir”
Omer Abdullah
New Delhi’s more-than-expected love for the Muftis has caused frustration not only in separatist camp but the opposition National Conference is also at a loss of wits as how to fight them. Despite being a major partner in power, the PDP has left little for the National Conference to harp on as the opposition party. The PDP has pushed the NC to defensive by raising the issue of withdrawal of troops and the laws granting them special powers. The NC President was left with no choice but to oppose the PDP demand saying “time is not ripe yet for withdrawal of troops”. Left with little options, Omer Abdullah had to borrow an idea from South Africa to demand the formation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe all the cases of custodial deaths and disappearances in the state.
“Time has come where there has to be a commission on the pattern of South Africa to probe human rights violations by security forces since 1989”, Omer demanded.
But what should make the National Conference look positive is that despite apparent pro-people chorus, the PDP’s sloganeering is yet to cut ice with the common masses. There is a large section of common people, who describe the PDP moves as shallow and without commitment. They hold the PDP equally responsible for the “crimes committed against them in the name of counter-insurgency operations”. The all out campaign against the PDP leadership by both factions of the Hurriyat Conference seems to have an impact on the peoples’ psyche.
A major point played against Muftis is that the father-daughter duo wooed voters in the last assembly elections promising to disband the SOG, held responsible mainly for human rights violations, but reneged on his promise after getting into the seat of power. Mufti is accused of having done to death all the top commanders of militants groups including the Hizbul Mujahideen commanders, who had held dialogue with the central government in 2000.
The National Conference leaders repeat these allegations time and again to keep them fresh in public minds. Dr Mahbooba Baigh, the NC provincial president and MLA, caused flutter in the PDP when he, in response to Muftis demand of withdrawing troops to barracks, that it was Mufti Mohammad Sayed, who forced the troops out of barracks when he was home minister. This grim reality refreshed the major massacres carried out troops in capital Srinagar and Handwara in 1990.
The blame-game continues unendingly and only time will say as which way the wind will blow.
Syed Ali Geelani
Like mainstream, the separatist politicians are out on the roads to knock down one another. They have been involved in brinkmanship of sorts for one-upmanship. Even as Syed Ali Geelani appears high on the pedal on moral grounds as against his archrival Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq, the latter however seems to be bridging more ground on diplomatic front against the former.
Syed Ali Geelani suffered a major setback as government of Pakistan has put all its weight behind Mirwaiz. Pak establishment has closed down the office of Syed Ali Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference in Islamabad. The faction is also reeling under a black-out by official Pakistan TV and Radio Pakistan in its news bulletins.
A spokesperson of Geelani-led separatist amalgam accused moderate faction of the Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq for influencing government of Pakistan to “act against their faction of the Hurriyat”. However, Shahidul Islam, a close aide and spokesperson of Mirwaiz said that it was the decision of Pakistan government. “We have nothing to do with it”, he insisted.
The Hurriyat faction was operating under the name of Kashmir Centre in Pakistan and was headquartered in the same building at Islamabad , where Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat Conference had its office. “A few days back our office-bearers went to the office as usual but were stunned to see it locked”, said the spokesperson. He said that ‘our office was closed after the visit of Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq to Islamabad ”.
Mirwaiz led a three-member team of his Hurriyat faction to Islamabad , last month, where he held talks with Pakistan President General Parvez Musharaf and other Pakistani leaders as a part of his “efforts to find a peaceful solution of Kashmir issue”. However, his visit was preceded by a protest strike in the valley, called by Syed Ali Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference.
Sources in the separatist amalgam revealed that the Hurriyat delegation pleaded with Pakistan president and prime minister that they should come up with a clear stand vis-à-vis Hurriyat Conference. “Either we (Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat) or Geelani Sahab”, the Mirwaiz and his colleagues, who included Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Bilal Gani Lone are reported to have told the Pakistani leadership. They said that the closure of Geelani-led Hurriyat office was a follow up action to this demand. The Pakistani establishment is reported to have advised its official media including Pakistan TV and Radio Pakistan to ignore in their coverage all those separatist groups and leaders, who were operating outside Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat Conference.
Syed Ali Geelani described it as “incongruity in ideas and actions of Pakistani establishment”. “On one hand, they are inviting me for talks, and, on the other, they don’t allow my men to work freely”, he said. On February 5, Pakistan Prime Minister said that he would invite Syed Ali Geelani for talks to Islamabad. Incidentaly, Aziz’s statement came just two days after Pakistan President General parvez Musharaf hinted that Geelani would not be taken into confidence while negotiating a solution on the issue of Kashmir by saying “supporters of terrorism in Kashmir would not be taken on board”.
Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri has invited Geelani for meeting on February 22 in New Delhi. Kasuri is arriving in New Delhi on February 20 to participate in the Indo-Pak Joint Commission Conference on Education, Environment, Science, and Technology, Tourism, Agriculture and Telecommunication. Kasuri is likely to extend Geelani the invitation of Pak premier.
Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq
Despite his proximity with, both, New Delhi and Islamabad, things seem little rosy for the youthful leader. His Pakistan visit was preceded by a total shutdown across the valley on January 17. Grenades were also fired on his house at Nigeen in Srinagar on January 13 to keep him away from Pakistan visit. Mirwaiz says that his meetings with leaders in New Delhi and Islamabad are a part of his bit to contributing to the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan and finding a respectable resolution of Kashmir issue.
The three-hour long audience Pakistan President Gen. Musharraf granted to the Mirwaiz and his associates Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and Bilal Lone emboldened them to talk tough against militants and their modus operandi. Their confidence got a great boost as the Pak President agreed to their demand of closing the office of Geelani in Islamabad and they took a public stand even against militants. "This (militancy) has failed to achieve us goal (of freedom) except that it increased the number of graveyards in Kashmir" Mirwaiz grumbled. "The Kashmiris can no longer afford to continue with the violence and bloodshed. The militancy has to pave way for the political discourse so that the issue (of Kashmir) is solved to the expectations of the people of Kashmir and to the acceptability of India and Pakistan", he said.
Earlier, Abdul Gani Lone was the only exception to have mustered the courage to challenge militants on the soil of Pakistan. In 2002, when he was in Pakistan in connection with the marriage of his son Sajjad Lone, he asked foreign militant outfits to withdraw from Kashmir.
Mirwaiz's tough talking on Kashmir militancy seems official line in present day Pakistan. The formation of joint mechanism against terrorism, following a meeting between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana, last September, rallies on the stoppage of terrorist activities in both countries. Pakistan has already curtailed the activities of militant groups on its soil. It is widely believed that militants would be further marginalized in near future.
Pakistani establishment is working out on an option of encouraging a rift within the militant amalgam United Jihad Council, which is headed by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. The Hizb chief is considered as a close confidant of Syed Ali Geelani and he does not endorse the changing line Pakistan president General parvez Musharaf has adopted on Kashmir issue. A group of senior militant commanders of various outfits including Mushtaq Zargar (al Ummer Mujahideen) and Rafiq Dar (JKLF) are reported to have already distanced themselves from Salahuddin.
This notion got further credence when Mushtaq Zaragar defied the United Jihad Council’s decision to boycott Mirwaiz on his Pakistan sojourn and met him. The supporters of Mirwaiz had raised the banners of Mushtaq zargar and chanted slogans in favor of the Al Ummer chief during their reception to the Mirwaiz on his return from Pakistan to Srinagar. Bilal Gani Lone, son of late Abdul Gani Lone, was also accompanying the Mirwaiz. Bilal’s younger brother Sajjad had parted away from Mirwaiz for the later’s participation in the funeral prayers of an Al Ummer commander Rafiq Dar alias Lidre, who was alleged to be involved in the killing of Abdul Gani Lone.
Ends
“Jo chup rahay gey zuban-e-khanjar laho pukaray ga aasteen ka” (the dagger may not speak for its action but the blood on the hands of the killer would speak). The recent exposure of shock-killing of five civilians, who had gone missing in the past over one year, in fake encounters by the personnel of special operation group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir Police and the army has established the apt execution of the adage. And the massive search hundreds of Kashmiris began for their missing ones in the aftermath of the killing-scam speaks of the magnitude of such incidents carried out by the men in khaki just to earn cash rewards and departmental promotions.
There is no authentic record on the number of persons that have disappeared in Kashmir ever since armed trouble erupted in the state in 1989-90. Even the official statistics have reckless variation. According to Chief Minister Mr Ghulam Nabbi Azad 1074 persons have disappeared in the state. Former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed (in 2003) said that only 60 persons were missing of whom, he said, many could have crossed over to Pakistan for arms training. However just a few days before Mufti’s revelation, Mr Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, then law minister in Muftis cabinet, had told the state assembly that 3744 persons were missing. The non-government organizations and human rights groups put the figure between 8000 to 10000 persons.
Whatever the truth, one can little afford to ignore the magnitude, sensitivity and seriousness of the problem, more particularly when those deemed to be protectors would turn out to be predators. Not a single day passes, ever since five missing civilians were found buried in graveyards in Ganderbal area as “Pakistani cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit killed in gunfights with SOG and army troops”, the hapless relatives of missing persons march through the streets of Srinagar and demand that whereabouts of their missing ones be revealed.
“Hamare khoye hoiye kahan hien” (where are our missing ones) reads a banner at Koker Bazar in Lal Chowk. The photograph of a local youth Mohammad Saeed was pasted on bottom of the banner. Saeed is alleged to have been picked up by personnel of CRPF at Regal Chowk in 1990. His whereabouts are not known since then.
There is a man who says his brother — a Special Police official — was picked up from home and tortured to death. Then a fake encounter was organised to stage his death. There is a father Abdul Rasheed Beigh of Nowshehra Srinagar — whose photographer son was picked up by the SOG in 1997. Beig then wrote a booklet, chronicling a father’s travails.
Ghulam Mohammad Bhat of Nowhatta personally visited the newspaper offices to tell the tale of his son’s “forced disappearance”. “Some plain-clothed persons picked up my son Mohammad Yaseen, outside a mosque at Jabgaripora on March 2, 2000 when he was coming out after offering night prayers. The same night security forces raided our house and searched Yaseen’s room. Since then we don’t know his whereabouts. We have searched him in every jail, police station, security camp but of no avail”, he said. 48-year old lady Parveen Ahanger of Batamaloo has been fighting a lonely battle to know the whereabouts of her son, who was arrested by security forces in 1990.
The list is endless. The relatives of missing persons have now gathered under the banner of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) to launch a joint search for their missing ones. “We are now psychologically prepared for everything. If they have killed him, we want the body so that we can give our son a decent burial”, said Ms Parveen Ahanger, who heads the Association.
Ghulam Nabbi Azad
The exposure of the heinous crime committed by a ring of rogue police and security men was a major embarrassment for the chief minister Ghulam Nabbi Azad. His trouble had furthered as the exposure came at a time when the state assembly was in session and the opposition National Conference was ready with all the fire and cylinders to target the government. But the chief minister exhibited an unprecedented amount of courage, wit and boldness by taking the initiative into his own hands. He asked the bosses in the police to come down heavily on the personnel and officers responsible for staging fake encounters for “promotions and cash rewards”. Five policemen, including SSP Hansraj Parihar and DSP Ram Bahdur were arrested.
The chief minister left the opposition thinking for other ideas when he ordered judicial probe into the fake encounter killings. He trod miles by promising probe in all the cases of disappearances since 1990.
What goes to Mr Azad’s credit more is that he is the first chief minister who showed concern and took cognizance of the civilian killings. Custodial deaths and disappearances have been a perennial feature in all the governments (including governor’s rule) that have come up in the state since 1990.
Abdul Rasheed Beigh, whose son Fayaz Ahmad disappeared in 1997 had knocked at the door of then chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah almost daily but little to awaken his conscience. Tasleem, Akhtar, wife of Nazir Ahmad Deka, who includes among five civilians killed as Pakistani militant by the SOG in Ganderbal, said that she visited the residence of PDP chief Mahbooba Mufti several times to seek her help in finding her missing husband but Ms Mufti did not even grant her audience.
But given all the praise and appreciation Mr Azad would deserve, it is unlikely to lessen the problems for the chief minister. More than some outward threat, Mr Azad has been entangled from within. The PDP, which is a partner in the government, is not ready to share any blame in the government. The PDP wants to take credit only for the good things going on in the government, the vile and vice could only be of other partners. This fact came crying when the Ganderbal civilian killings-scam surfaced. More than a responsible partner in the government, the PDP behaved like the opposition. It flung all the filth it could find on the Congress and squarely held the chief minister responsible for it.
Mufti Mohammad Sayed
The PDP-Congress relations appeared to be touching breaking point when the PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed wrote chief minister Ghulam Nabbi Azad to withdraw his security. Other PDP leaders followed their patron and President Mahbooba Mufti, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Muzaffar Hussain Baigh and many more also asked for withdrawal of security. It looked no less than a bizarre thing that Mahbooba Mufti made this demand while talking to media persons under the heaviest security cover around her official Fairview house at Gupkar.
As if to maintain that she meant what the PDP say, Ms Mahbooba gave a slip to her security guards and along with Ghulam Hassan Mir visited the holy shrine at Aishmuqam in Anantnag. The PDP leaders kept their visit as the secret and telephoned media organizations of their venture without security only after they reached back to their secured residences in Srinagar. The PDP filed another missive to the chief minister to hold discussions on the issue of withdrawal of armed troops back to the barracks and abolition of hate laws. Mufti has written a formal letter to the chief minister in this regard and has sought a debate and discussion on the issue in the cabinet.
Keen observers believe that the PDP’s embarrassment for the chief minister is unlikely to see any end. These are going to increase in the days to come as the PDP ideologues are working out on a plan to dominate the psyche of the people till the assembly elections are held next year. Political pandits have a consensus that the PDP’s moves are aimed at influencing voters in the assembly elections, due next year. PDP contested the 2002-assembly election almost on a separatist agenda. The PDP leaders, more particularly, Mufti Mohammad Sayed and his daughter Ms Mahbooba Mufti touched the emotional chord by raising the issue like human rights violations by security forces, dialogue with militant leaders and withdrawal of special powers to security forces. It is widely believed that the PDP leadership is out again with the same slogans and wants to make maximum use of these slogans before the elections.
Right from Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of hard-line faction of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, to the opposition National Conference President Omer Abdullah, there seems a considered opinion that the PDP is virtually out with a campaign for elections. Both Geelani and Omer publicly blasted the PDP leadership for trying to make political capital out of “human blood”. Syed Ali Geelani described the PDP outcry on fake encounters as “makarana siysat—politics of duplicity with an eye on next elections” and alleged that when PDP was in power, hundreds of civilians and militant commanders were killed staged encounters.
Muftis are reported to have backing of a strong section of political and intelligence bureaucracy in New Delhi, and they are made aware of possible initiatives on Kashmir before hand. It is against this backdrop Syed Ali Geelani called Mufti Mohammad Sayed “the most trusted lieutenant of New Delhi and is taken into confidence in all the decisions regarding Kashmir”
Omer Abdullah
New Delhi’s more-than-expected love for the Muftis has caused frustration not only in separatist camp but the opposition National Conference is also at a loss of wits as how to fight them. Despite being a major partner in power, the PDP has left little for the National Conference to harp on as the opposition party. The PDP has pushed the NC to defensive by raising the issue of withdrawal of troops and the laws granting them special powers. The NC President was left with no choice but to oppose the PDP demand saying “time is not ripe yet for withdrawal of troops”. Left with little options, Omer Abdullah had to borrow an idea from South Africa to demand the formation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe all the cases of custodial deaths and disappearances in the state.
“Time has come where there has to be a commission on the pattern of South Africa to probe human rights violations by security forces since 1989”, Omer demanded.
But what should make the National Conference look positive is that despite apparent pro-people chorus, the PDP’s sloganeering is yet to cut ice with the common masses. There is a large section of common people, who describe the PDP moves as shallow and without commitment. They hold the PDP equally responsible for the “crimes committed against them in the name of counter-insurgency operations”. The all out campaign against the PDP leadership by both factions of the Hurriyat Conference seems to have an impact on the peoples’ psyche.
A major point played against Muftis is that the father-daughter duo wooed voters in the last assembly elections promising to disband the SOG, held responsible mainly for human rights violations, but reneged on his promise after getting into the seat of power. Mufti is accused of having done to death all the top commanders of militants groups including the Hizbul Mujahideen commanders, who had held dialogue with the central government in 2000.
The National Conference leaders repeat these allegations time and again to keep them fresh in public minds. Dr Mahbooba Baigh, the NC provincial president and MLA, caused flutter in the PDP when he, in response to Muftis demand of withdrawing troops to barracks, that it was Mufti Mohammad Sayed, who forced the troops out of barracks when he was home minister. This grim reality refreshed the major massacres carried out troops in capital Srinagar and Handwara in 1990.
The blame-game continues unendingly and only time will say as which way the wind will blow.
Syed Ali Geelani
Like mainstream, the separatist politicians are out on the roads to knock down one another. They have been involved in brinkmanship of sorts for one-upmanship. Even as Syed Ali Geelani appears high on the pedal on moral grounds as against his archrival Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq, the latter however seems to be bridging more ground on diplomatic front against the former.
Syed Ali Geelani suffered a major setback as government of Pakistan has put all its weight behind Mirwaiz. Pak establishment has closed down the office of Syed Ali Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference in Islamabad. The faction is also reeling under a black-out by official Pakistan TV and Radio Pakistan in its news bulletins.
A spokesperson of Geelani-led separatist amalgam accused moderate faction of the Hurriyat led by Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq for influencing government of Pakistan to “act against their faction of the Hurriyat”. However, Shahidul Islam, a close aide and spokesperson of Mirwaiz said that it was the decision of Pakistan government. “We have nothing to do with it”, he insisted.
The Hurriyat faction was operating under the name of Kashmir Centre in Pakistan and was headquartered in the same building at Islamabad , where Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat Conference had its office. “A few days back our office-bearers went to the office as usual but were stunned to see it locked”, said the spokesperson. He said that ‘our office was closed after the visit of Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq to Islamabad ”.
Mirwaiz led a three-member team of his Hurriyat faction to Islamabad , last month, where he held talks with Pakistan President General Parvez Musharaf and other Pakistani leaders as a part of his “efforts to find a peaceful solution of Kashmir issue”. However, his visit was preceded by a protest strike in the valley, called by Syed Ali Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference.
Sources in the separatist amalgam revealed that the Hurriyat delegation pleaded with Pakistan president and prime minister that they should come up with a clear stand vis-à-vis Hurriyat Conference. “Either we (Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat) or Geelani Sahab”, the Mirwaiz and his colleagues, who included Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Bilal Gani Lone are reported to have told the Pakistani leadership. They said that the closure of Geelani-led Hurriyat office was a follow up action to this demand. The Pakistani establishment is reported to have advised its official media including Pakistan TV and Radio Pakistan to ignore in their coverage all those separatist groups and leaders, who were operating outside Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat Conference.
Syed Ali Geelani described it as “incongruity in ideas and actions of Pakistani establishment”. “On one hand, they are inviting me for talks, and, on the other, they don’t allow my men to work freely”, he said. On February 5, Pakistan Prime Minister said that he would invite Syed Ali Geelani for talks to Islamabad. Incidentaly, Aziz’s statement came just two days after Pakistan President General parvez Musharaf hinted that Geelani would not be taken into confidence while negotiating a solution on the issue of Kashmir by saying “supporters of terrorism in Kashmir would not be taken on board”.
Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri has invited Geelani for meeting on February 22 in New Delhi. Kasuri is arriving in New Delhi on February 20 to participate in the Indo-Pak Joint Commission Conference on Education, Environment, Science, and Technology, Tourism, Agriculture and Telecommunication. Kasuri is likely to extend Geelani the invitation of Pak premier.
Mirwaiz Ummer Farooq
Despite his proximity with, both, New Delhi and Islamabad, things seem little rosy for the youthful leader. His Pakistan visit was preceded by a total shutdown across the valley on January 17. Grenades were also fired on his house at Nigeen in Srinagar on January 13 to keep him away from Pakistan visit. Mirwaiz says that his meetings with leaders in New Delhi and Islamabad are a part of his bit to contributing to the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan and finding a respectable resolution of Kashmir issue.
The three-hour long audience Pakistan President Gen. Musharraf granted to the Mirwaiz and his associates Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and Bilal Lone emboldened them to talk tough against militants and their modus operandi. Their confidence got a great boost as the Pak President agreed to their demand of closing the office of Geelani in Islamabad and they took a public stand even against militants. "This (militancy) has failed to achieve us goal (of freedom) except that it increased the number of graveyards in Kashmir" Mirwaiz grumbled. "The Kashmiris can no longer afford to continue with the violence and bloodshed. The militancy has to pave way for the political discourse so that the issue (of Kashmir) is solved to the expectations of the people of Kashmir and to the acceptability of India and Pakistan", he said.
Earlier, Abdul Gani Lone was the only exception to have mustered the courage to challenge militants on the soil of Pakistan. In 2002, when he was in Pakistan in connection with the marriage of his son Sajjad Lone, he asked foreign militant outfits to withdraw from Kashmir.
Mirwaiz's tough talking on Kashmir militancy seems official line in present day Pakistan. The formation of joint mechanism against terrorism, following a meeting between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana, last September, rallies on the stoppage of terrorist activities in both countries. Pakistan has already curtailed the activities of militant groups on its soil. It is widely believed that militants would be further marginalized in near future.
Pakistani establishment is working out on an option of encouraging a rift within the militant amalgam United Jihad Council, which is headed by Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. The Hizb chief is considered as a close confidant of Syed Ali Geelani and he does not endorse the changing line Pakistan president General parvez Musharaf has adopted on Kashmir issue. A group of senior militant commanders of various outfits including Mushtaq Zargar (al Ummer Mujahideen) and Rafiq Dar (JKLF) are reported to have already distanced themselves from Salahuddin.
This notion got further credence when Mushtaq Zaragar defied the United Jihad Council’s decision to boycott Mirwaiz on his Pakistan sojourn and met him. The supporters of Mirwaiz had raised the banners of Mushtaq zargar and chanted slogans in favor of the Al Ummer chief during their reception to the Mirwaiz on his return from Pakistan to Srinagar. Bilal Gani Lone, son of late Abdul Gani Lone, was also accompanying the Mirwaiz. Bilal’s younger brother Sajjad had parted away from Mirwaiz for the later’s participation in the funeral prayers of an Al Ummer commander Rafiq Dar alias Lidre, who was alleged to be involved in the killing of Abdul Gani Lone.
Ends
posted by kashmirstudycentre | 10:21 AM
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