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Thursday,
December 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Peace eludes J&K as another year ends Independence only solution: JKDLP
chief US ban on LeT a ‘cosmetic exercise’ J & K detainees to be shifted outside
state
17 killed,
31 hurt in bus mishap |
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Peace eludes J&K as another year ends Jammu, December 26 When the Government of India announced a unilateral ceasefire for six months, which ended somewhere in May, there were hopes of some positive response from the separatists. But that was not the case. Instead, militants utilised the ceasefire period for establishing fortified bases in various areas of the state. The result was that the state witnessed escalated militancy related violence. The year witnessed 25 suicide attacks by terrorists, especially those belonging to the
Lashkar-i-Toiba, on the camps and pickets of security forces against 17 such attacks in 2000. In these attacks, over 120 security personnel were killed in these attacks 30 terrorists lost their lives. The suicide attacks on the Assembly complex in Srinagar and on an Army convoy at Ramban were the biggest in the sense that against the death of five militants, 29 civilians and 21 security personnel were killed and more than 65 others were wounded in these two incidents. The year registered as many as 4,500 incidents of violence, including hurling of 365 hand grenades, 400 explosions, 260 cases of arson, 40 rocket attacks, 2500 cases of cross and random firing, 35 cases of arms snatching and 330 abductions. Though nearly 1960 militants were killed, civilians and security personnel continued to be at the receiving end. More than 900 civilians were killed by militants and about 600 security personnel lost their lives, which included 475 men of the state police. The security forces arrested 570 terrorists and forced 85 to surrender in various parts of the state. According to senior state government functionaries, these incidents were on the usual pattern of the Pakistan sponsored proxy war which entered its 13th year. But what made 2001 different from the previous years was that for the first time in the past 12 years, the Indian and the Pakistani troops exchanged heavy fire on the border. Besides mortar guns, the two sides used artillery guns to pound each others’ bunkers and posts. Rough estimates reveal that while the Pakistani side lost more than 50 soldiers during a week long armed conflict, at least 20 Indian soldiers died while fighting the Pakistan forces. The Central Government’s step towards opening a dialogue with separatists and other militant groups proved a non-starter. Its chief negotiator, Mr
K.C. Pant, visited Srinagar but following boycott by the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and a lukewarm response from the others, it did not even shake the Dal Lake by ripples. Amid the hit and run tactics adopted by the security forces and in the light of continued infiltration, allowing rebels to inflate their ranks, both the separatists and the mainstream political organisations were gripped by panic and uncertainty. The year did not witness any major political activity except that towards the fag end of the year some mainstream political parties were seen engaged in a pre-poll exercise. Severe dissensions in the state units of the Congress and the BJP left the opposition so
emaciated that the ruling National Conference faced hardly any threat from it, allowing the Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, a chance to survive without any challenge to his leadership. As the scare of militant attacks, increased interaction between the people and political leaders, including those belonging to the National Conference, remained a limited exercise in the Kashmir valley. The picture in the separatist camps was equally gloomy. The APHC remained indecisive for the full year. Its leaders registered their presence through repeated calls for hartal and by showing up moving from one foreign embassy to another in Delhi. As awareness dawned on them that they (Hurriyat leaders) had lost credibility among the people and they were shaking like a house of cards, they went on the defensive lacking any will to pursue some definite programme. Holding of the panchayat election, after a gap of 23 years, was a feather in the cap of the state government during the year that has just ended. At the same time, the state government had no relief from cash crunch. Fiscal constraints restricted the government in taking in hand new development projects and completing the ongoing ones. Progress in sectors connected with agriculture, horticulture, housing and rural development was maintained. But people continued to suffer on account of an acute electricity shortage throughout the year. This affected industrial production, leading to a further increase in industrial sickness. The year saw the debate on the trifurcation of the state gaining momentum in the Jammu region. It also experienced political tension over the issues connected with the restoration of greater autonomy to the state, grant of regional autonomy and implementation of the Resettlement Act, providing for citizenship rights for those who had migrated to Pakistan and occupied Kashmir in 1947-50 in case they returned to Jammu and Kashmir. The controversial issue surfaced after the Supreme Court returned the Bill, saying that it had already become law. It was a year of refugee problem for the state government in Jammu. Though the plan of carrying Kashmiri Pandit migrants back to the valley remained a dream during the year, the number of refugees swelled with people fleeing border villages in the wake of heavy Pakistan firing. Already nearly 40,000 displaced persons from the border villages of the Akhnoor,
R.S. Pora and Samba sectors had faced trials and tribulations during the past two years in camps. More than 10,000 persons became refugees during the last week of the year. It was a year of illusions and frustration writ large on the faces of over one crore persons in the state, and scare. Two questions are being asked by the people: Will the ongoing proxy war end in open war? If the turmoil has come, can peace be far behind? The situation is so fluid that none can hazard a guess. |
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Independence only solution: JKDLP chief Srinagar, December 26 “I am a supporter of a free, sovereign and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir where every citizen enjoys equal rights, where no preference is given on the basis of community, fraternity or ideology,’’ he told newspersons here in his first press conference after being released from jail on bail. Qureshi, who is currently facing a case trial in a local court here for hijacking an Indian Airlines plane in 1971 from Srinagar to Lahore, said he considered the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir — from Gilgit to Lakhanpur — as one entity. “The only way to resolve the issue is to sit across the table and find a honourable solution with the active involvement of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,’’ he said. About the gun, he said, “I am a firm believer that gun will not help us reach our goal and, in fact, will complicate the issue further”. When asked if he condemned all those holding guns in the valley, he, however, replied with a “no’’, saying that they had their own thinking to fight for the freedom of Jammu and Kashmir. Co-founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Qureshi spent about 32 years in Pakistani jail and self exile in Amsterdam before surrendering before the police at Indira Gandhi International Airport in the year 2000. “I do not say those holding gun in Kashmir are terrorists... but those who are involved in the attacks on the state Assembly, Indian Parliament and who are causing grenade and bomb blasts at crowded places are nothing but terrorists,’’ he added. He also gave details of how he was trained in Pakistan and how, on the directions of the late JKLF chief Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, he planned and executed the plane hijacking in 1971. He said he had blown up the plane on the directions of the Pakistani police. However, Qureshi said today he had regrets over the incident and now he was a totally changed man. “I will be visiting every corner of the state in the near future and build up public opinion for a peaceful freedom struggle.’’
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US ban on LeT a ‘cosmetic exercise’ Jammu, December 26 These officers referred to the ban the US Government imposed on the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuL) over two years ago and said activists of the (HuL) started operating under the nomenclature of Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI). Since the US ban there has been no let up in the activities of the HUJI. Now Lashkar-e-Toiba has been converted into Al Furqan with an announcement by its leadership that it did not want to embarrass Pak President General Pervez Musharraf. This announcement has for the time being, made General Musharraf’s task easy when he was under severe pressure from the USA, the UK and other European countries to seal bank accounts and assets of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other outfits. The main features of the Pakistan-sponsored proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir have been that agencies across the border have encouraged the mushroom growth of militant outfits so the anti-India campaign is not in the hands of one organisation or outfit which, in the long run, could enter into an agreement with the Government of India to the dismay of Pakistan. The multiplication of rebel outfits is also supported to create confusion among the Indian security agencies. Between 1990 and 1994 there were about 150 militant outfits operating in the Kashmir valley. At present there are five to six rebel outfit which matter in the state. The birth of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad is a recent story. It may be recalled that when the US Government banned Harkat-ul-Ansar on charge that its activists had kidnapped and killed five foreign tourists in Kashmir in 1995 the outfit changed its name to Al Faran. And when the needle of suspicion fell on Al Faran it changed its name to Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami. Security experts are of the opinion that either by imposing a ban on rebel outfits or by sealing their bank accounts and other assets no material change in their activities was expected. The sealing of bank accounts and assets would be a temporary financial loss to them, which they could expect to make up quickly with funds flowing to their coffers from various channels, including the hawala operators. According to these experts, banning underground outfits and sealing their assets would be simply a cosmetic exercise. It will have no impact on the fighting capacity of the terrorists whether they operate in Jammu and Kashmir or elsewhere. They opine that if both George Bush and General Pervez Musharraf are keen to see an end to terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir they should ensure that not a single militants crossed into the Indian state from across Pakistan. In addition, Pakistan should see to it that the supply of arms and ammunition to militants operating within Jammu and Kashmir is totally stopped. If these two steps are taken militancy will have an early end. Security experts said even if Pakistan and the USA ban six more rebel outfits many more will be born and the activists of the banned outfits will operate under new names and nomenclature. They say that Pakistan’s crackdown on Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba was simply an eyewash to keep the US Government in good humour. Militancy in Jammu and Kashmir has survived because of overt and covert support from official and unofficial agencies in Pakistan. |
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J & K detainees to be shifted outside
state Jammu, December 26 Official sources said to begin with 30 detainees were being shifted to jails outside the state. The sources said after review of the security situation it was decided to shift the militants to jails outside the state so that the militants and suicide squads could not attempt the storming of jails for securing release of the militants. During the past three years three jailbreak attempts at Kot Bhalwal in Jammu were made and two of them were successful. Azhar Masood, chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad, had been lodged at Kot Bhalwal for several years before he was released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight at Kandahar two years ago. In the initial stages of militancy most of the militants had been lodged in various jails outside the state, including the Jodhpur Jail. Even the Hurriyat leaders were in jails outside the state for over two years. Later, the trend was reversed and the militants were lodged in the prison cells in Jammu and Kashmir. A senior police officer said there was a possibility of a major crackdown on separatists and militants by the security forces and sufficient space was needed to lodge them in the jails. At present all jails in the state are overcrowded. But the main reason for shifting of the detainees was to ensure that jails in Jammu and Kashmir were not targeted for securing the release of the militants detained therein. |
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Tributes paid
to martyr Kathua, December 26 Addressing a sammelan to mark the first ‘shaheedi divas’ of Grenadier Daleep Singh at Chhan Kanna in Hiranagar tehsil today, Mr Salathia said even after facing crushing defeats in three wars and in the Kargil conflict, Pakistan was again indulging in unprovoked firing on the border. Earlier, Mr Salathia inaugurated a gate constructed in the memory of Daleep Singh. The gate has been constructed by the parents of the martyr. |
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17 killed, 31 hurt in bus mishap Jammu, December 26 The bus was on its way to Poonch town when its driver lost control and the vehicle skidded off the road falling into a 300-metre gorge in Mandi area killing 17 persons and injuring 31, sources said. The injured have been admitted to a hospital in Poonch, where condition of many of them was stated to be critical, they said.
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