6 militants among 11 killed

SRINAGAR, May 13 (PTI) — Eleven persons, including six militants, were killed while a Pakistani intruder was among two militants arrested by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir since last evening, an official spokesman said today.

Three militants, including a self-styled district commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen, were killed in an encounter with the security forces at Arai Mandi in Poonch last night, an official spokesman said.

The Hizbul district commander was identified as Sher-e-Khuda, who was wanted by the security forces for the past several months, he said.

Four AK assault rifles, two pistols, four wireless sets and 17 magazines were recovered from the militants.

A top militant of the Harkat-ul-Ansar, Abdul Wahid, who was the chief coordinator for the supply of arms, ammunition and funds to militants in Doda for the past few years was shot dead by Rashtriya Rifles personnel at Jovra in the Thathri area of the district yesterday, he said.

Wahid’s mother and sister-in-law, who were wounded in the shootout, succumbed to their injuries in hospital, the spokesman said, adding two of his accomplices escaped.

The security forces also shot dead two militants suspected to be foreigners associated with the Lashker-e-Toiba, at Gool in Udhampur district last night.

Two rifles, four improvised explosive devices, three grenades and five binoculars were seized from them, he added.

APHC: no move to take part in poll
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, May 13 — The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) here today refuted media reports that it was going to participate in the forthcoming elections.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Chairman of the APHC, told TNS that it was an attempt to create confusion among the Kashmiri masses. It was also meant to "bring disrepute to the Hurriyat Conference and its leadership".

Geelani also charged New Delhi with "planting imaginative stories with the help of an obliging media". He pointed out that there was no shift in the stand of the APHC from the "right of self-determination" for the people of the entire Jammu and Kashmir.

Reacting to the agency reports from The Hague, Prof Abdul Ghani, spokesman for the APHC, said that the separatists' conglomerate would participate in the elections only if they were held under the supervision of the UN for determining the future status of Jammu and Kashmir. "The Hurriyat Conference has no intentions to jump into the election process merely for the formation of a government," he said.

The agency reports from The Hague had said that the APHC had offered to participate in the electoral process in Kashmir. The report said that in the panel discussion on the "peace table" the Hurriyat members, Shabir Ahmad and Ghulam Rasool Dar, breaking away from their past stand of the "right of self-determination", mooted the idea of joining the electoral process under the Farooq Abdullah government.

The APHC is a conglomerate of over two dozen separatist political, religious and militant organisations fighting for the "right of self-determination" for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The conglomerate was constituted five years ago with Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq as its chairman. Umar Farooq served two terms, each of two years, as the Chairman of the APHC. It was early last year that the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was elected as its new chairman. He was re-elected as chairman recently for one year. The APHC has amended its constitution, making the chairman's term of one year only.

Cops in league with militants
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 13 — Several police officials posted in the Kashmir valley have been in league with militants, especially the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen outfit.

This disclosure has been made by Salahuddin, a foreign mercenary who has been operating as district commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen in Srinagar for the past several months, during interrogation.

Official sources confirmed that Salahuddin was arrested by the BSF from Bachapora Colony on the outskirts of Srinagar city recently. He, according to the sources, did not resist and broke down telling his interrogators that he would speak the truth.

On information given by him, nine assault rifles were seized from a personal security officer (PSO) of an SSP. The PSO had been acting as a conduit for various groups of militants and had been helping them in moving from one area to the other and in carrying weapons and explosives.

It was also on information given by the arrested militant that an inspector had been picked up for sustained questioning. The foreign mercenary had told his interrogators that the inspector had given his service revolver to him. The inspector, according to official sources, had intimated to his bosses that his revolver had been snatched by militants.

Interestingly, the inspector had been posted in the security wing of the police.

What has taken the authorities by surprise is the way a constable posted in the Special Protection Group (SPG), assigned with the task of providing security to the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, had been found to have developed a nexus with activists of the Hizbul Mujahideen. He is said to have been in close contact with Salahuddin. The constable has been taken into custody for questioning.

The sources said that Salahuddin had given a long list of those police personnel and other government functionaries who had been his helpers. Senior government authorities are examining the list and the BSF assisted by the state police, has been taking Salahuddin to those houses where he had stayed and from where he got assistance.

Reports said that Salahuddin had been assigned the task of regrouping the Hizbul Mujahideen in Srinagar district. It was under his command that militants had surfaced and carried out a series of attacks on the security forces and on renegade militants in the Ganderbal area in the assembly constituency of Dr Abdullah.

Intelligence experts are examining reports that militancy received a fillip in Srinagar district from 1997 because of the nexus between some police officials and the insurgents.

The nexus between the police officials and the militants in the Kashmir valley is not a new phenomenon. During Governor’s rule one of the official cars of an Adviser to the Governor was used for carrying militants and weapons from one place to another. Several police officers had forged secret links with the militants to ensure their safety. But this trend got reversed after Mr Gurbachan Jagat took over as Director-General Police. He revamped the entire police force and encouraged it to take on the militants.

Pakistani agencies were unnerved by the new face of the police and hence serious attempts were made to "cultivate" some police officials so that vital information regarding the plan of the security forces could be given in advance to the militants. Also, police help was sought to enable militants to maintain their mobility and for carrying weapons and explosives from one place to another.

In addition, the Pakistani agencies made determined efforts to make inroads into the security wings set up for politicians, including the Chief Minister, and senior bureaucrats.

During this exercise the militants had instructions to eliminate political workers and leaders belonging to the National Conference. And since 1996, when the National Conference assumed power, more than 75 National Conference activists, including 45 block presidents, have been killed by the militants.

FCI says no to J and K request
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 13 — The Food Corporation of India has turned down the request of the state Government for extending the credit facility on the purchase of foodgrain.

Sources said the Union Food and Supplies Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, had earlier intervened but the FCI had been directed by the Centre not to supply foodgrain on credit to any state, including Jammu and Kashmir.

The State Food and Supplies Minister, Mr Ajay Sadhotra, said the Government paid Rs 25 crore in April to the FCI and assured that the arrears of Rs 140 crore would be cleared in instalments.

Recently during his visit to Delhi, the authorities told him that the credit facility would not be extended.

The only concession the FCI gave, after Mr Barnala's intervention, that it supplied wheat, rice and sugar against the payment of Rs 25 crore.

The state Government is worried because from the next month it has to transport foodgrain and other essential commodities to Ladakh.

In case the FCI stuck into its stand the entire public distribution system, covering over 27 lakh people in the state, may collapse anytime.