KS Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 1: Soon after Assembly Elections of 1996, a counter-insurgent leader, compared role of counter-insurgents called Ikhwanis in local parlance to that of a ROP- Road Opening Party for conducting elections. The bitterness reflected in this comment was a reaction to the disowning of these people by the Indian state. This process was complete by 1998. The lack of direction for these groups which had played stellar role in forcing hard-core terrorist groups on the run, made Ikhwan leaders try their political ambitious individually. Some joined NC or Congress, while others probed BJP.

These Ikhwanis started their activities first as sources for the security forces and then as counter-guerrilla groups. This idea conceived by Mr Jagmohan was put into implementation by Mr G.C. Saxena while Gen. Krishna Rao reaped the credit for its success. Despite total apathy at political level, the Army continued its liaison with these groups for collecting information needed for CI operation, and in turn providing security to them.

Abandonment of counter-insurgent groups by the government was followed by reprisal killings of Ikhwanis by terrorists. Around four hundred Ikhwanis and their family members have been killed since 1998. During the past four months of unilateral. Cease-fire, more than a hundred Ikhwanis have been killed by Jehaid groups. Many Ikhwanis joined the militants again, while some manage their safety by living in security fortifications.

Last month three top leaders of a JKAC, an Ikhwani group were called for some meeting with Home ministry officials. It was immediately after the humiliation during the Panchayat elections, when there were hardly any candidates for contesting the elections. Polls had to be postponed in three districts. Fake nomination forms had invited criticism in the media.

After the meeting with Home Ministry officials, the counter-insurgency groups claimed that they have entered into an alliance to gain relevance in the present fluid political scenario. These groups are also activating their armed wings to regain initiative in view of the emergence of a fresh wave of militancy sweeping Kashmir valley.

What exactly is the new brief to the Ikhwanis remains a matter of speculation? one report said that the new role envisaged for Ikhwanis is an outcome of Indo-Israeli Cooperation on devising strategy to counter suicide attacks by Lashkar terrorists. Another report says that Home Ministry has realised, of late the role played by these groups. With ground-level situation worsening in Valley, there is no other option than to revive Ikhwan groups. These groups serve as sort of VDCs for Kashmir valley. Yet another version is that the revival is aimed at making future electoral process successful. As Pant dialogue is essentially primed to seek participation of Hurriyat in power politics through elections, reviving these groups comes handy. By delivering effective blows to militant groups, separatist groups yearning for political power would be more forthcoming. Secondly, the participation of Ikhwan groups in electoral process would invest elections with greater legitimacy. And lastly, the notching of a few seats by Ikhwanis, the only group which seeks fuller integration would convey a different message.

Some Hurriyat sections accuse Dr Abdullah for reviving, these groups to curb anti-NC groups during elections. They point to recent bonhomie between Kuka Parrey and Dr Abdullah. Out of different Ikhwan groups, the JK Awami Conference, headed by Liaqat Ali (Bilal Hyder) has across the board respectability. It, unlike other groups did not indulge in extortions, vendetta killings and has a definite political perspective  free from opportunistic trappings. Recently, it organised a one day convention at TRC, Jammu.

At the convention, Awami Conference leaders deplored the double standards of the governments at the Centre and criticized the role of both NC and the Hurriyat. Mr Liaqat Ali, charged Centre for patronizing those leaders who are responsible for making Kashmir a living hell. He questioned the rationale for holding dialogue with Hurriyat. About NC, Mr Liaqat said it was Dr Abdullah who sent the Kashmiri youth for arms training to Pakistan. On Autonomy demand raised by NC, the Awami Conference President remarked that it was a drama to befool the people. Mr Ali added that Farooq government came to power through rigging and when Hurriyat had boycotted elections. Demanding free and fair elections, Mr Ali declared that selfish, short-sighted and greedy politicians had to be removed from political scenario of Kashmir as an important step to find lasting peace there.

Mr Usman Majeed, vice-president of JKAC lamented that elections of 1996 was an immature step that led to the spread of militancy to all the districts of Jammu.

KS Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 28: Poet Iqbal once said in a lighter vein to Prem Bhatia, the former Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune, that exile from homeland has given new meaning to the talent of Kashmiris. He argued that had he and Moti Lal Nehru stayed put in Kashmir, Nehru would have been a district level pleader, while he himself would have been a poet known at district level only. These remarks of the famous poet, who often prided in his ancestry from Saproo Pandit family, retain relevance even today.

In the field of languages Braj B Kachru (USA), Aga Shahid Ali (USA), ML Raina (Chandigarh), Suvir Koul (Delhi) etc have carved out a niche for themselves. The latest to join this club is Hari Kunzru, a 31-year old Kashmiri, who holds British citizenship.

Hari Kunzru, working as a Journalist for wired magazine and the Daily Telegraph suddenly shot into prominence, when he landed a massive contract worth $ 12.5 million for a two-book deal following the draft of a novel he submitted less than a month ago. The books are yet to be published. Hari secured $ 750,000 for the American rights (Dulton-a division of Penguin) and $ 50,000 for the European rights from Hamish Hamilton (Penguin). The draft manuscript was submitted to publishers in the first week of March 2001. Three days later he received the first offer. Three publishers competed in the British auction for the book. Without concealing his joy, Kunzru remarked, “I never expected anything like this and I’m overjoyed. I just hope the positive reaction from the publishers will translate into a positive reaction from the public”. Johnny Geller of Curtis Brown, an agent for the book commented, “This book has become a phenomenon. It has really caught the imagination of the book world and everybody wants to publish it. More popular fiction may have made more money but this is a huge payment for a literary novel. The book itself is accessible, funny and a great story.” Kunzru, whose manuscript became the subject of a transatlantic bidding war, has been quoted as having said that Hollywood filmmakers had expressed a lot of interest in buying the rights.

The draft manuscript is entitled “The Impressionist,” which Kunzru describes as “Midnight’s children meets Tom Jones”. It is his third attempt at writing a novel. Set in the 1920s, “the Impressionist” is the story of a half English illegitimate child who is disowned by his Indian family. The child travels to UK, where after getting trained as an anthropologist he moves on to Africa.

Hari Kunzru, who lives in South London belongs to the distinguished Kunzru family. He was born to a Kashmiri father and English mother. His father Dr Krishan Mohan Nath Kunzru, an Orthopaedician migrated from Agra to London in the mid 1960s. Hari was educated at Bancroft School in Woodford Green and later at Wadham College, Oxford. Hari’s illustrious grand-father, late Hriday Nath Kunzru was a leading legal luminary and a celebrated name in India’s anti-colonial struggle. Great institution builder, HN Kunzru helped set up Sapru House (Indian Council of World Affairs) for the research scholars from the country and abroad.

HN Kunzru loved his homeland and his community immensely. Every year he would visit Kashmir and stay with Sapru family. His concern over discrimination meted out to his community after 1947 in Kashmir was more genuine then that expressed by many of his other colleagues. HN Kunzru’s ancestors had also migrated around the same time as Nehrus’. As the surname indicates, this distinguished family migrated from Kunzar, a village in the Tang Marg area of North Kashmir.

KS Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 7: Terrorists and their sympathizers in local media and among so-called human rights groups, NGOs have been engaged in a psy-war against the army. Terrorists have been using fatigues of Indian security personnel to conduct massacres and torture people. Subsequently, political mileage is sought to be extracted by implicating army. Another ploy is to attract international  glare by falsely accusing army of indulging in custodial killings and kidnappings. From time to time many would be terrorists have been disappearing regularly. Their family members of the terrorists have been including them in the ‘Missing Persons’ category. This is being done with a two-fold purpose--logistically it gives good leverage to the terrorist in operating and secondly attributing the disappearance to some foul play by Army puts Army on defensive. The Army, so far has been slow in countering the psy-war.

Punjab Police nabs keylink:

Two recent operations mounted by Kathua Police and Punjab Police throw enough light on how internal subversion aids the terrorist campaign in J&K.

On April 1, Punjab Police arrested one Mehmood-ul-Haq, a militant alongwith three other Harkat-ul-Mujahideen militants from Jammu--Sher Khan, Gouri Khan and Danish alias Dagga Khan from Batala town. Alongwith them, one Manjit Singh alias Fauji of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), who was working as a conduit with Jammu-based militants, has also been arrested.

Twenty-five year old Mehmood, who hails from Behrot area (Thannamandi) of Rajouri was a M.Phil student of Urdu in Jammu University. He suddenly disappeared from his house on January 21. His family members and relatives were well aware of his contacts with militants. They deliberately instigated the people to shift the blame of Haq’s missing on Special Operations Group (SOG). People of Palangar had resorted to violent agitation in Rajouri alleging his arrest and custodial killing by SOG. The instigated mob ransacked an Information Department office and several government buildings in Rajouri. A NC leader, as per one report had also joined the protest.

During interrogation, Mehmood and his associates revealed that the driver of a Congress leader in Doda and a senior doctor had helped them forge links with Sikh militants so that militancy was revived in the border areas of Punjab. They also said that a hotel in Jammu, was being used as a ‘control room’ by ISI sleuths.

As per police sources, Mehmood-ul-Haq has confessed his links with several top militants of Hizb and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. With the help of Sher Khan, Haq came in contact with Bashir Ahmed of Kathua a truck driver and Manjit Singh ‘Fauji’. Bashir was engaged in smuggling arms and explosives in his truck from Punjab to border districts of Jammu and vice versa. Other three militants--Sajjad Hussain (of Bhaderwah), Mohd Din (Samba) and Mohd Yousaf were already in contact with Bashir. Mohd Din used to smuggle arms consignment from across the border in his home district. Police sources added that Mehmood in his confessional statement revealed that his brother, Abdul Qayoom, working as ASI of Armed Police helped Mehmood and his group several times in smuggling of weapons and carrying out their subversive activities. Qayoom, suspended sometime back for his links with militants had been reinstated for want of sufficient evidence against him.

Cong-I leader implicated:

Sajjid Hussain, a front ranking militant had been working as a domestic servant in the house of a Congress leader and former MLA Gh. Qadir in Bhaderwah. He alleged that the house of former legislator was frequented by a number of hard-core militants, operating in Doda district Sajjad revealed that he joined militancy because of financial allurements and at the instance of Congress leader. He added that Gh. Qadir deputed a senior doctor of Bhaderwah to accompany him to meet Hizb militant, Majid Dar at Srinagar in his hideout. Dar took him to Kupwara from where he was taken across to PoK alongwith a group of 25 militants early last year.

A hotel in Jammu was being used by these militants as a hideout for dumping arms and ammunition and distributing these to militants operating in Rajouri, Poonch and Doda districts. The Key ISI man in these activities was one Major Tariq Ahmed, operating from Sialkot. Police has also identified a political leader from Rajouri with whom Mehmood-ul-Haque was in regular contact over phone.

Basohli attack:

In yet another break through, Kathua police worked out the mystery of an attack on a police matador carrying Rs 1 crore cash at village Marta, Basohli on March 1 this year. SOG arrested two militants, identified as Muzaffar Hussain son of Sub-Inspector Nazir Hussain, posted in Police Training School, Kathua, and Zahoor Hussain son of Head Constable Abdul Husain While Muzaffar belongs to Basohli, Zahoor hails from Billawar. The two militants involved in the attack were arrested near the house of a CPM leader in Bhatindi, while making telephone calls from a PCO. Two other militants arrested were Shafqat Ali and Shahid Hussain, both hailing from Bhaderwah. Zaheer Abbas and DK (Code name), involved in the attack are still at large at the time of filing this report and belong to Doda district.

The two constables injured in the encounter provided valuable leads, leading to the arrest of Muzaffar Hussain. He spilled the beans and SOG was able to nab other culprits. Shahid Hussain happens to be a close relation of a CPM leader, putting up in Bhatindi and had also stayed in his house for few days. The CPM leader hasn’t been arrested so far. The militants involved in the attack belonged to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The kins of two police officers had followed the matador from Kathua treasury to Basohli and picked up a wireless set on the way on which they informed the other militants waiting for the attack. Police also recovered arms and ammunition from the possession of militants.

KS Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 6: An unseemly controversy has been created by some state-level politicians and a section of regional media to malign the image of the Indian Army. Following the sensationalizing of a report related to proposed recruitment on April 21 for Army, in a Jammu English daily, two MLAs belonging to CPM and BSP raised the issue in the ongoing session of State Assembly. The two members known for anti-BJP stand tried to link the recruitment advertisement to the BJP’s alleged anti-Muslim bias. Responding to the debate, the Chief Minister, Dr Abdullah assured that he would take up the matter with the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister. The advertisement had mentioned that in that particular recruitment rally there was no vacancy for Muslims and tradesmen categories. Controversy was uncalled for because it was self-explanatory. Since tradesmen also did not have any vacancy, there was no question of anti-Muslim bias. Neither the English daily nor the two MLAs bothered to seek clarification from the Army.

Indian Army, it may recalled, has still not discarded the colonial tradition of recruitment based on alloting vacancies categorywise. There is no bias against any one. Army had already conducted two rallies in Rajouri and Samba, in which recruits were only Muslims. Hindu and Sikh vacancies were not filled up. There were no vacancies left for Muslims and tradesmen candidate for Akhnoor rally. Recruitment in army is based on intake from all categories so that equal opportunities are provided to one and all. Vacancies are filled biannually and categories to be filled are advertised accordingly.

The army in its rejoinder clarified that the reference to the two categories in the ad was specifically intended to avoid inconvenience to candidates of particular categories who would otherwise have to travel from far flung areas to Akhnoor. It attributed the controversy to biased reporting in the press.

General Padmanabhan, who sought clarifications from Army recruitment authorities and the Northern Command, was told that during Rajouri and Samba rallies six months earlier not a single Sikh or Hindu candidate had been recruited in the Army. Akhnoor rally was meant to fill the vacancies in the Dogra Regiment and the Sikh Light Infantry unit and the quota for. On Sikh and Hindus had to be filled. Keeping tradesmen out of the recruitment, it referred to those who have come out from ITIs, because there is a separate recruitment.

Despite the aversion of Kashmiris for joining Army, the J&K Light Infantry has a sizeable number of Muslim soldiers and officers. Even during the last ten years of turmoil more than seventy percent of the surrendered militants from Kashmir valley were recruited in paramilitary organizations like CRPF and BSF. As on today, 3683 surrendered militants are serving in these two orgnisations. The process of enlarging recruitment of Kashmiri Muslims in Army, CRPF and BSF was started by former Governor Jagmohan in 1990. No security agency or belt force anywhere in the world can recruit people without ascertaining the individuals’s background and commitment to the country he intends to serve. Indian Army and the Paramilitary forces have never discriminated in recruitment.

KS Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 6: In a major breakthrough, J&K Police have busted a funding racket linked to a Kashmiri separatist group, People’s League. On a tip off, district police, Kathua laid a naka party at Lakhanpur, which intercepted on March 27 a Maruti Car No: DL-7C-3147 and recovered Rs 1.05 lakh from the car occupants. Unable to explain the source of money, the police managed to lay their hand on a hidden box, fabricated inside the car. Over Rs 17 lakh were recovered from the box. This was for the first time that such a large amount of hawala money has been recovered in Jammu region. The arrested hawala conduits have been identified as Showkat Ahmed, R/o Shah Mohalla and Abdul Aziz, R/o Gowkadal, Srinagar, Srinagar. The two during interrogation, by the police revealed that the money was to be passed on to two terrorist groups operating from Srinagar.

Tracing the hawala links further, the police arrested Ghulam Mohd Khan alias Khan Sopori of Channapora Srinagar, the acting chairman of the separatist People’s League (Farooq Rehmani Group). Some incriminating documents, reports said, were recovered from him which detailed how the hawala funding of militants was operating. Khan Sopori and his associates have been receiving large amounts of money from Pakistan for distribution among the militants in the Valley. Sources added that Sopori used to send boys to Delhi for collecting money after getting a message on internet that “aadmi tayar hai” (man is ready). The details of money paid to militant outfits were fed by him in the computer. Earlier the two conduits had brought Rs 12 lakh from Delhi to Kashmir. For this they were paid Rs 50,000 by Sopori. Showkat and Majid were sent by Sopori to contact a person in Delhi, who conveyed the instructions of Farooq Rehmani and also handed over the money. Showkat Ahmed is also reported to be a PL activist. The reports said that Showkat, an employee of the Sheep Husbandry department has already visited Pakistan twice and brought huge consignments of money for militant and political outfits. The same reports added that Showkat has been getting assistance in subversive activities from his close relations, serving in senior positions in the State government. Immediately after the busting of the racket, three more links in the chain Nazir Payami (Sonawar), Rashid of Kolpora (Pulwama) Rafeek-ul-Islam and Gh Mohd Gaash from Chrar-i-Sharif, as per official sources have gone underground. Sopori’s new house is located beside the headquarters of Hurriyat Conference in Rajbagh.

KS Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Apr 7: The publishing of the report on the comparative status of the nuclear capabilities of India and Pakistan by the prestigious Jane’s Intelligence Review has caused ripples in the political and bureaucratic circles. Fearing censure by its adversaries, the NDA government in post haste has decided to put into action the process for implementing the recommendations of the Group of Ministers’ on reforming the national security system. Barely two days after the publication of the Janes’ Report, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee directed that the recommendations be placed before the cabinet for formal approval.

Jane’s Report says that India has moved at a slower pace in deciding and completing delivery systems, evolving procedures, tactics and doctrine for nuclear use as well as for ensuring effective control over nuclear forces. In all these areas Pakistan has fully implemented the lessons that it has learnt from already established nuclear powers. Pakistan’s nuclear forces are controlled by the Army and have been more fully incorporated into the country’s overall military strategy. Pakistan has nearly completed development of a solid-fuelled missile that could strike key Indian cities from deep within Pakistan territory. As per a report, carried by a Pakistani newspaper, The News, Pakistan will use its Ghauri series of liquid-fuelled missiles for offensive operations, while the Shaheen series would be retained for defensive purposes. Recently Pakistan conducted a weeklong “PAF Missile Firing Camp 2001” for test-firing of ground to air, surface-to-surface and air-to-air missiles (French-American make) for what it called “providing realistic practical training to air crew and weapon controllers.” Speaking at the PAF’s Sonmiani firing range, General Musharraf, the military dictator outlined Pakistan’s nuclear policy. He said, “we are always out-numbered.. We maintain a minimum deterrence, which we will always maintain.” Spelling out three stages of deterrence, he added that minimum deterrence, which could be quantified in comparison to the enemy’s strength, should be followed by “ability to threaten enemy’s such vulnerable targets which go beyond their tolerance threshold.” It would also mean “will and resolve of the force to defend and fight by challenging the enemy,” he concluded.

On the contrary, as per Jane’s Review India was yet to develop an effective missile-based nuclear deterrent and deploy a missile force in quantity. India’s nuclear delivery systems consist of assault aviation Mirage 2000H fighters, which will be supplemented by Sukhoi SU-30MK multi-role fighters, along with a limited number of Prithvi-I and II short-range ballistic missiles and Agni medium-range ballistic missiles. The report adds that none of the nuclear delivery systems possessed by India is capable of providing deterrence against China, it developed the long-range ICBM Agni, to fill the vacuum.

Pakistan, which has been using nuclear capability as an instrument of effective blackmail in the context of proxy war has put in place a command and control system. It has also established the nuclear command authority and the nuclear regulatory authority.

Political Indecisiveness:

Janes Review has attributed India’s slow pace to political indecisiveness and nuclear idealism in-built in country’s political culture. The report says, “India views nuclear weapons as necessary for their political utility, their ability to bring international prestige and provide deterrence vis-a-vis Pakistan and China”. But the political leadership has not fully thought through specifics of nuclear use or doctrine and does not view such weapons as possessing military utility and discounts the possibility of them being used on the battle field, it added.

Contrary to this, Pakistan’s nuclear forces are controlled by the Army and have been more fully incorporated into the country’s overall military strategy. In the wake of Kargil aggression, the GoI had appointed a review committee. The committee had pointed out that the successive Indian Prime Ministers had failed to take their own colleagues, the major political parties, the chiefs of staff and the Foreign Secretaries into confidence on the nature of Pakistan’s nuclear threat and the China-Pakistan nuclear axis. It had recommended that the post of National Security Adviser should be separate from the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. The committee had suggested that a second line of personnel be also inducted into the system as early as possible and groomed for higher responsibility and that India must bring out a white paper on the Indian nuclear weapons programme.

All this has not been done as yet, leave aside bringing out the Nuclear Doctrine. Political dithering has made India lose out in the field of defence preparedness. The recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee were sidelined. Defence experts have attributed this to the pressure from certain officials on the government. More surprisingly, the Prime Minister is still reluctant to separate the post of National Security Adviser from Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. Concentration of powers in the hands of extra constitutional authorities has made National Security Council a defunct body.

Task Force Recommendations:

With Janes Report coming, on the heels of Tehelka expose, the NDA government does not want to convey an impression that it is compromising National Security by sitting on the recommendations of four task forces set up by a Group of Ministers (GoM), set up in May 2000. The task force was created to study the recommendations of Kargil Review Committee. The four task forces were to study intelligence, defence management, internal security and border management and address critiques made of India’s security establishment in the Kargil report.

Main recommendations, if accepted will mean:

1) India will have a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), who will command a new intelligence service, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), which in turn will be commanded by a Three Star Inspector General of Army. CDS will also get the control of the country’s nuclear arsenal, which essentially would be through the land delivery methods.

2) In recognition of the stellar role it has been playing in counter-insurgency operations, the Rashtriya Rifles, raised as a paraamilitary force in 1990, is to be designated as a part of the regular army and will rank as a ‘regiment’. Its manpower and budget provisions will continue as before. State-level joint intelligence task forces are to be set up, and specific proposals have been made to upgrade the capabilities of police anti-terrorist units. The J&K Police Special Operations Group (SOG) has been held out as an example of the kinds of anti-terrorist units that must now evolve.

3) The recommendations on intelligence by the task force, which included Governor Girish Chander Saxena, K Raghunath, former Foreign Secretary, MK Narayanan, former IB Chief, PP Srivastva, former Special Secretary Home, B.Raman, former Additional Secretary RAW etc. indicate a desire for a thorough revamping of the intelligence services.

The suggestions would mean:

a) The IB will have complete responsibility for internal security operations and its Director would be given wide and autonomous powers. The IB would now have a formal charter and would be the nodal organisation for counter-terrorist and counter-intelligence work. It has also been tasked with ensuring the security of information systems. IB has also been asked to prepare country’s first dedicated police computer network and terrorism database. Another change suggested in IB networking is that the gathering and generation of intelligence and its analysis will be separated. IB will also be empowered to conduct covert work relevant to its new charter, including deep penetration operations abroad.

b) RAW will be a lean organisation now, with more focused work in gathering external intelligence. SSB personnel will be inducted into ITBP. Responsibility for conducting transborder operations will now fall on the new DIA. The DIA will also participate in intelligence support groups, run jointly with the IB and RAW to provide coordinated information to Army Corps Commanders in areas where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is in force. Governor Saxena says that “the concept of an intelligence community” will lead to greater harmonisation among the different intelligence agencies.

c) The task force report underlines the need for reviving Joint Interrogation Centres in States like J&K. The JIC concept had proved extremely useful in J&K for information-sharing among different agencies. Due to political expediency it was wound up in 1996 by the Farooq Abdullah Govt.

d) The Arun Singh-led report on defence restructuring has rejected the Army demand for overall control over the civilian administration in disturbed areas. The paramilitary forces and intelligence officials had resisted this idea mooted sometime back in 1998.

The Prospect:

If the recommendations are finally given stamp of approval by the cabinet in six months from now there will be a new national security system. During Deve Gowda led UF government also, late Inderjit Gupta, then Home Minister had suggested a workable scheme for deploiticisation of the post of DG Police and chief secretary at State government levels. The move was resisted by many state chief ministers, who wanted their own cronies for the posts. In many cases, intelligence officials have been frequently protesting about the unwillingness of the State governments to act on specific information on the presence of terrorists. The new National Security System, even if put to implementation would leave much to be desired. National Security Doctrine can be effective only in a new political culture, where political class and the bureaucrats would have greater accountability and security agencies enjoy wide-ranging autonomy in dealing with security threats, free from hassles of political interference.

Commented upon by Prof. M.L. Koul

Author: Pandit Rishidev, Zanipora, Anantnag

Pages: 256      Price : Rs. 100/-

Pandit Rishidev who is a native of Zainpora, tehsil Shopian, Kashmir has remained a political activist of long standing. The Muslim communalists were as cruel to him as to Kashmiri Pandits in general even though he had been deeply wedded to the cause of peasant welfare and upliftment. Rishidev’s role in the initiation and implementation of purposeful schemes and projects directly related to agricultural operations for increased yield has been widely acclaimed even by his adversaries with communal motivations. Like all Kashmiri Pandits he was driven out of his home and hearth and as a consequence has been wallowing in exile for the past eleven years. His house at Zainapora has been blazed by vandals drawing support from the local Muslim population. In his 155-paged book titled as ‘Zakhmoo Ki Zabani’, essentially a memoir, he has delved in the repertoire of his political experiences with an attempt to put it in perspective. It is pertinent to put that Rishidev in his political career spanning five decades, has had affiliations with National Conference, Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India, Democratic National Conference and Kashmiri Pandit organisations.

The ferocious loot, plunder and murder of Kashmiri Pandits in 1931 has found many proponents who have invented the spurious thesis of ‘political and economic oppression of Muslims by the ruling class and their henchmen’ and justified the loot as the struggle of enslaved people against the despotic rule, despite its aggressively communal complexion in its outward form. To cover up the role of marauders a researcher in his thesis has shifted the scene of bigotry and belligerence from Kashmir to Punjab with a view to tracing its communal hue and motivation. In his vivid account of 1931 happenings Rishidev has debunked the text-book formulations of ‘political and economic oppression’, ‘victimized and enslaved people’ and ‘despotic rule’ and has focussed on the communally tainted pathological mind that has been ruling roost in Kashmir seeking satiation in infliction of atrocities of loot, arson and murder on Kashmiri Pandit minority.

But, sad as it is, Rishidev, though having a bias for Marxist ideology, has not put the 1931 loot in its proper perspective by probing the role of political and communal forces that planned and executed the loot and murder. He has spared the Reading Room Party which had forged links and alliances with the British Political Department Ahmadiyas. The loot of Kashmiri Pandits was part of a bigger game. The Britishers wanted the Maharaja to abdicate his sovereignty over Gilgit which had emerged as a strategic point on the chess-board of British politics in the region. Through  loot Kashmiri Pandits were punished for the expression of their patriotic sentiment when they made a bonfire of foreign goods. The correspondence between BJ Glanay, L.E. Lang and other British spies and Sheikh Abdullah was first splashed by the Blitz issued from Bombay and found detailed analysis in the ‘Tragedy of Kashmir’, a book authored by H.L. Sexena and banned by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. Ahmadiyas though hated and shunned as deviants from Islam had clandestine links with the leader of the Reading Room Party. Punjab being their main operational base they spent fabulous sums to fan out in Kashmir.

Despite giving some details about the horrendous loot of 1931, Rishidev has not probed the vicious role of Qadeer, a man from Peshawar and a waiter in the employ of an English army officer. His sudden appearance in the mosque of Mir Ali Hamdani, where Muslims had collected in considerable numbers for a political act of choosing their representatives for an audience with the Maharaja was not and could not be accidental. In fact, the whole game plan was pre-thought and pre-planned. Qadeer’s venomous oratory which M.J Akbar lauds ignited the communal trigger resulting in the loot, arson and murder of Kashmiri Pandits throughout the Valley. To be more precise, Qadeer was an Ahmadiya plant and the same was corroborated by Molvi Yousuf Shah, Mirwaiz of Kashmir, who was interviewed by Ghulam Hasan Khan, an author on post-1931 political developments in Kashmir.

Owing allegiance to communist politics Rishidev could be one of those Kashmiri Pandit political activists who ideologically believed in the efficacy of land reforms and liquidation of rural debts as twin measures for retrieval of peasantry from economic backwardness. That was how D.P. Dhar who rose to be a central minister was the first to surrender his lands to the Muslim tenants without any consideration. Jia Lal Taimiri who was known for his proverbial honesty and kept a vigilant eye on the corruption and kitties of National Conference leaders and hence detested had also surrendered his lands to the tenants much before the land grab had started. Taimiri was a socialist by conviction. The Muslim leaders of National Conference vintage never emulated or appreciated the extra-ordinary precedent set by the two prominent leaders of Kashmiri Pandits. Instead what they did was to project the Kashmiri Pandits as a community of exploiters.. The fact was that Kashmiri Pandits, not all, but some of them like Muslims, were petty chakdars who had sold their precious assets and ornaments to purchase land. In Mirpur the land was owned by the Muslim land-lords who had been more cruel to their co-religionist tenants than their counter-parts elsewhere. Curiously they were not projected as exploiters of Muslims. Instead Hindu Mahajans pursuing the indigenous system of banking were focussed as the ‘target group’ and ruthlessly harassed and looted by the ‘Jathas’ (groups) despatched from the Punjab by the Ahrars who had pretensions to secularism and deserted the Congress ranks in the wake of the formation of Muslim League for the avowed objective of a separate land for Muslims.

The Kashmiri Pandit communists and radical humanists as the innovators of land reforms in terms of an ideograph never controverted the malicious disinformation unleashed by the Muslim leadership of National Conference against Pandit minority in general. The fact is that they were rootless people mired in the quagmire of fantasy leagues away from any commitment to the weal and welfare of the community. Unthinkingly and myopically they pandered the politics of Muslim majoritarianism wedded to the idea of entrenching itself in the state power in perpetuity. Sad as it is, they were completely ignorant of their past history of gore and blood and failed to learn lessons from history with a view to shaping their reasonable responses to the challenges emerging for them as a vulnerable community. It was absolutely bad politics as to have lent unqualified support to the forces of Muslim sub-nationalism unfolding under an elusive facade of left-oriented programmes and sham slogans. As is known to all and sundry consistency was never a virtue of Sheikh Abdullah. He tried to draw maximum support from local communists and communist leadership at national level when he told such elements that he was following their road-map and implementing their cardinal programmes. In his meeting with Loy Handerson he allayed his fears about his radicalism when he told him that he implemented land reforms just to appease communists within National Conference.

It was not for nothing that Sheikh Abdullah divulged the land reforms plan in toto from the pulpit of National Conference much before it was put in practice. The purpose was to tip off in advance all the Muslim land-lords to negotiate with their Muslim tenants for showing their land-holdings under self-cultivation or distributing the lands in excess of standard ceiling among family kins. In the process religious affinities were exploited to the hilt. Kashmiri Pandits were at a disadvantage as they subscribed to a different faith. As a matter of prudence a Kashmiri Pandit land-lord had distributed his broad acres among his family kins much before land reforms gained momentum to dispossess a small minority. Later on the mutations attested by the competent revenue authorities were ordered cancelled on the intervention of Revenue Minister who was brazen in his religious prejudices.

The Land Reforms Committee nominated in April, 1948 was stuffed with members who were  rubber stamps. There was not a single member equipped with thorough knowledge of all the contemporary models that had been under experimentation in various countries of the world. Nor were the services of a reputed economist borrowed to make the exercise rational, fair, meaningful and purposeful. Why were not the Soviet-type co-operative and collective farms accepted as a model? Why were not the Brazilian and the Chinese models considered for implementation? In fact, no studies were made on scientific lines. No blue-print was spelt out. No long ranging discussions were held with respect to the whole exercise. The communists made a ridiculous suggestion to involve ‘peasant committees’ for the stipulated grab. The nominated members felt proud to mouth panegyrics to the new age lord donning the authority of the chairman of the committee. Dissent if any was dubbed as treachery. The chairman alone knew the contours and shades of the plan and  modalities of its execution. The members getting Rs 200/- p.m. were required to repose full faith in the omniscience of the chairman. The Pandits on the committee were silently told that in view of the plebiscite being held under UN supervision mass of peasants had to be won over for India and giving them land on a platter could be the best bait. This was how Pandit resistance if any to the absurdities of the executive fiat was eliminated.

The first secretary of the Land Reforms Committee, a Kashmir, a senior-most Revenue officer, took no time to resign from the committee when he was apprised of the content and methodology of the land reforms as the exercise was officially trotted out. He shocked the chairman of the committee by candidly telling him that he could not be a party to an act which prima facie was illegal. The Muslim policy as it was then, so it is now was to involve a Kashmiri Pandit for implementation of the executive fiat of a sensitive nature. A frantic hunt was launched and the man picked up was a mere matriculate, pliant and senile, career conscious and myopic. He slavishly followed the dictates of his new found masters. When he was asked to bend, he went whole hog for genuflection. The way land reforms were implemented, it virtually ended in the wresting away of land from Hindus and its transfer to the Muslims. To have his own pound of flesh, he meekly approached the powers that be for his elevation to the position and status of the Financial Commissioner. A vehement ‘no’ from the then Prime Minister of the state sent a chill down his spine. The Kashmiri Pandit, perhaps, was ignorant of the resolution of the Muslim Conference submitted to the Maharaja in which among other things it was clearly spell out that no Kashmiri Pandit should be appointed to the key-positions in the state administrative apparatus.

The Emergency Administration and the Interim Government lost no time in embarking upon the loot of the landed properties. Both were headed by Sheikh Abdullah who chose himself for the echelon and people were afforded no chance to express their pleasure or displeasure. The land grab process started when there was no elected legislature,  no supervening constitution spelling out a forum for redressal or restoration of basic rights if encroached upon. It was a total vacuum which was fraudulently exploited to snatch away landed properties that were either purchased or legally inherited. The new bosses having been appointed to the positions at the helm had yet to establish their representative character under a constitutionally spell-out democratic process. The loot of landed properties was nearly complete till 1952 when the constituent assembly was constituted under a facade of elections which did not grant any political space to the opposition groups present in the state. The bankruptcy of the political leadership in the country became evident when the list of fundamental rights as incorporated in the Republican Constitution was not allowed full-scale application to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir with a view to facilitate the processes of loot being perpetrated on the bonafide citizens of the country. The State High Court as appointed by the highly detested ruler of the state dithered in establishing rule of law under a fear psychosis generated by the Emergency and Interim Government lineage-lords. In fact, the accession issue was used, as a weapon of blackmail to weaken the resolve of the Central government to establish the full-dimensional sovereignty of the Republican Constitution over the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The then Indian leadership was shaken in their roots when the five members of the J&K state refused to bring the state under the purview of the Republican Constitution. One of the five members was a Hindu from Jammu.

Rishidev is reticent on many issues which have been raised from time to time in relation to the content and methodology of the land reforms. He does not confess that the Land Reforms Committee as constituted under an executive fiat was a mere eye-wash. He does not even dilate upon the differences that had divided the leadership of the National Conference on some of the basic issues relating the land reforms. He does not even tell us that the will of the chairman of the Land Reforms Committee was the ultimate arbiter. He is silent on the issue of the standard ceiling which was fixed at 182 kanals of land and does not convey as to why and how it was kept open for future tamperings to destabilize a vulnerable minority. He does not seem to be aware of the fact that soon after the abolition of the Big Estates Act of 1952 no fewer than 10,000 Kashmiri Pandits bid adieu to their land of genesis in search for a pittance elsewhere.

There are some more vital issues which Rishidev has failed to ponder and clarify for guidance of the posterity. How was it that the ceiling was fixed With an individual as a unit of cultivation, not a family? Did he know its implications? It meant that a family was allowed to have as many times the amount of ceiling land as the number of sons in the family and their father. It also meant that they could possess as many times the portions of  exempted lands like bedzars, safedzars et al. It cumulatively meant that a family was deliberately allowed to own a big landed estate. Rishidev, Dr NN Raina, Moti Lal Misri, DP Dhar, Shyam Lal Saraf and those Kashmiri Pandits who declared.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Akhil Bharatiya Partinidhi Sabha, Delhi (March 16, 17, 18 2001), Sewa Dham Vidya Mandir, Mandoli, Delhi.

Resolution No. 04

Jammu & Kashmir

The ABPS (Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha) feels extremely perturbed over the recent happenings in the state of J&K in general and in the Kashmir valley in particular. The governments’ decision of unilateral cease-fire did not, however, bring about the desired  results. It is true that hostilities on the LoC have declined but there was no let up in the terrorist activities in the Valley. Along with targeting the civilian population, as it is evident from the killings of the innocent Sikhs, terrorist groups have, during the intervening period, become so audacious as to strike at the security installations and forces. In fact, three months should have been a sufficient time for experimentation; but the government in its wisdom thought it fit to extend the time frame of the cease-fire. Though the ABPS has no reason to doubt the government’s assessment of the situation, it would like to emphasis that the ceasefire is not an end in itself. ABPS, therefore wants to emphasis, that a dialogue with  those outfits, that are really interested in peace through negotiations be started at the earliest, and at the same time insurgent terrorism he put down with an iron hand, giving the security forces the freedom of decision and action, including the destruction of the terrorist training centres in PoK.

The ABPS also takes note of the other dimensions of the problem in J&K besides insurgent terrorism. Acutely suffering from discriminatory and partisan policies of the State government, for the last more than half a century, a demand for Union Territory status for Ladakh and an agitation for the separate statehood for Jammu are getting stronger by each day. There is also problem of rehabilitating the Kashmiri Hindus who have been uprooted from their homes, because of a rabidly communal mindset of a large section of Kashmiri Muslims.

In view of the various aspects of this intricate situation, ABPS requests the Sarkaryavaha to set up a committee that will examine the problem in detail and in depth, and make recommendations to the ABKM (Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal) within two months. The committee’s recommendations will be placed before the ABKM meeting in coming July.

Following is the full text of the government statement on Kashmir:

“The Government of India had declared unilaterally a policy of non-initiation of combat operations in J&K with a view to lowering the levels of violence and creating an atmosphere conducive to commencement of a peace process in the troubled State.

Despite the continuing violence on the part of some predominantly non-Kashmiri terrorist groups, the Government is gratified to note that there is an unmistakable ground swell for peace among the people of J&K. In order to promote a vigorous movement towards establishment of peace and tranquility, the government has decided to embark upon a political dialogue with all sections of the peace loving people of the State including those who are currently outside it.

The dialogue from the side of the Government of India will be held by Sh. KC Pant, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. It is hoped that representatives of all walks of life from among the people of J&K will be partners in this dialogue.

More specifically, it is expected that, beside the J&K government, all political parties, Non-Government Organis-ations, Trade unions, social and religious bodies from all the regions of the State will participate. The government invites people of goodwill who desire restoration of peace and normalcy in the State to come forward to participate in the dialogue”.

‘The government notes that the APHC has all along taken the position that talks should be unconditional. Now that the government has agreed to hold talks in the interest of early restoration of peace, it is for the APHC to consider whether it would not be inconsistent for them to set preconditions for the dialogue. The doors are open for them to join in the talks. The doors are also not closed for Kashmiri organisations which are currently engaged in militancy in the State but are desirous of peace.

The agenda for the dialogue briefly stated is ‘peace and how it may be attained in the troubled State’. All aspects bearing on this theme will be relevant to the dialogue.

The Government of India takes notes of the frequently repeated requests from Pakistan that they are eager for a dialogue with India on J&K. The Government of India re-affirms its faith in such a bilateral dialogue and hopes that Pakistan will help in its resumption by curbing cross-border terrorism and putting an end to the vicious anti-India propaganda managing from Pakistan. This will be accordance with the Shimla agreement and the spirit of the Lahore declaration.

The road to pace is not without serious obstacles: one such is continuing violence against the innocent people of J&K. To reduce this violence security forces have been directed to vigorously conduct operations against those who disturb the peace and victimize the innocent people of J&K, while at the same time ensuring that the population at large is spared undue hardships or harassment.

The government expects that all right thinking people in the State will join hands with the government and march purposefully in quest of the peace which has eluded them for the last 12 years. It is only in an atmosphere  of peace that an agreed solution for the J&K issue can be evolved.”

Background: Focussed counter-insurgency operations against the Kashmiri terrorist sin early 90’s led to the fall of public support to militants. Pakistan then introduced a new feature in the proxy war--the systemic induction of international Islamist mercenaries to prop up what it called as Jehad (religious war)_. Master Ahsan Dar, the founder of Hizbul Mujahideen, the armed outfit of Kashmir Jamaat Islami, upon his arrest in 1993 disclosed that ISI was laying stress on the induction of highly trained and well-equipped alien mercenaries to effectively engage the Indian security forces.

The availability of trained Islamic fighters folowing the end of the Afghan war enabled Pakistan to keep militancy alive in Kashmir as also to eliminate the potential of social disaster that could follow the influx of thousands of battle-hardened fundamentalist fighters now rendered jobless. Induction of these aliens into Kashmir was a low-cost option. This induction changed the complexion of terrorist campaign in Kashmir. It led to upgradation in military training within Kashmir. The alien mercenaries provided cutting edge leadership to militant activities in J&K. New routes for infiltration, hitherto insurmountable, became available through these experienced fighters. Foreign nationals’ kidnappings were staged to draw international publicity. Minority community massacres with demonstrations of extreme brutality became a common affair. Demographic changes involving expulsion of Sikhs in Kashmir and Hindus from Muslim-majority districts of Doda, Poonch-Rajouri acquired urgency. They built an anti-west ideological framework. The new thrust for Talibanisation of Kashmiri became visible. There is global consensus that Pakistan funds, trains and equips the Islamic mercenaries. As per Indian government estimates around 40% of the militants in Kashmir are Pakistan or Afghan and some 80 percent are teenagers.

Fomenting subversion in Kashmir through Islamist mercenaries has led to the proliferation of Jihadi madrassas in Pakistan. According to a JKLF leader, there are more than five lakh Jehadi fighters in Pakistan. Though the destination of these Jehadists is primarily Kashmir, their role in Central Asia, Russia, China has also been significant.

Political activists and social scientists, concerned the Jehadi phenomenon have been trying to understand the rise of Jehadi groups to formulate a comprehensive response against these.

Curriculum and Poor Infrastructure:

Poor educational infrastructure, particularly in Pakistan countryside has facilitated the penetration of Jehadi groups into the rural populace. The World Bank estimates that only 40 percent of Pakistanis are literate, and many rural areas lack public schools. Islamic religious schools, madrasahs as they are called, are located all over the country. These not only provide free education but also free food, housing and clothing. In the poor areas of southern Punjab, madrasahs funded by anti-Shia sectarian group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan even pay parents for sending them their children.

In the 1980’s General Zia-ul-Haq promoted the madrasahs as a way to garner the religious parties’ support for his rule and to recruit troops for the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan. Presently madrasahs are funded by wealthy Pakistani industrialists at home or abroad and by private and government funded NGOs in the Persian Gulf States and Saudi Arabia.

Madrasahs preach a narrow and violent version of religion. These equate Jehad with Waging armed war against non-Muslims. Jessica Stern, who teaches public policy at Harvard University writes, “these schools encourage their graduates, who often cannot find work because of their lack of practical education, to fulfill their “spiritual obligations” by fighting against Hindus in Kashmir or against Muslims of other sects in Pakistan”. Of an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 madrasahs in Pakistan, only 4350 are registered with the government.

Madrasahs have resisted the state demand for expanding the curricula. Some chancellors argue that madrasahs are older than Pakistan itself. The chancellor of Darul Uloom Haqqania, where mercenaries for subversion in Kashmir are churned out in thousands says that the broadbasing of the cirrucula would “destroy the spirit of the madrasahs”. Sipaha-e-Sahiba says Madrassahs are the supply line of Jehad and complains that where states have taken control of madrasahs, such as Jordan and Egypt, “the engine of Jehaddis extinguished.”

Financial Network:

Pakistani Jehadi groups describe hide donations on Eid-ul-Azha as significant source of funding for their activities in Kashmir. Intelligence officials say most of the militant groups’ funding, comes in the form of anonymous donations sent directly to their bank accounts. Lashkar-i-Toiba has been found raising funds on the Internet. So much money has been raised by Lashkar-e-Toiba and its parent organisation Markaz-al-Dawa-Irshad mostly from sympathetic Wahabis in Saudi Arabia that they are reportedly planning to open their own bank.

Individual Jehadists also benefit financially from this generous funding. Celebrated Pakistan expert on Central Asia, Ahmad Rashid says, “they are in this for loot.” Mid-level manager of Lashkar, as per one estimate earns 15,000 rupees a month, while the top leaders earn much more. These leaders live in mansions, which are staffed by servants and filled with expensive furniture. Operatives receive smaller salaries but win bonuses for successful missions.

Milt Bearden, CIA station chief in Pakistan from 1986 to 1989, disclosed that the US and Saudi Arabia funneled some $3.5 billion into Afghanistan and Pakistan during Afghan war. Jihad along with guns and drugs became the most important business in the region. Wealthy Arabs in the Persian Gulf region and members of the Pakistani Diaspora, thus came to develop stakes in prolonging ethnic and religious conflicts, in areas where Muslims formed religious minority. They contributed not only capital but also extremist rhetoric. Late Eqbal Ahmed, the Pakistani scholar has dubbed this enterprise as “Jihad International, Inc.” The prolongation of the subversive war in Kashmir, thus suits the interests of those involved in “Jihad International, Inc.” While many are dependent on Jihad for financial interests, others find Jehadist war intoxicating psychologically. A Harkat operative told a Wester scholar :

“We won’t stop--even if India gave us Kashmir... We’ll (also) bring Jihad here. There is already a movement here to make Pakistan a pure Islamic state. Many preach Islam, but most of them don’t know what it means. We want to see a Taliban type regime,”

Recruitment:

Wealthy Pakistanis donate their money than their sons to the “Jihad”. Poor families particularly in rural areas are exploited to send their wards for fulfilling the “spiritual duty”. So thorough is the brain washing that the parents, whose children die in terrorist acts do not lament. They believe that their sons have become martyrs. One lady, whose son died in Kashmir told a western journalist that she would be happy if her six remaining sons were also “martyred”. “They will help me in the next life, which is the real life,” she consoled herself.

Families with low social origin get respectability, when the funeral of their children killed in terrorist Jihad are attended by thousands of people. Jihadi groups manipulate funeral occasions in such a way that poor families get motivated to send their children for Jihad. Many of the families get financial assistance from the terrorist groups. The Shuhda-e-Islam Foundation run by Jamaat-e-Islami, claims to have dispensed 13 million rupees to the families, whose children got consumed in “Jihad” in 1995. To perpetuate a culture of violence, a practice common to gangs in inner-city Los Angeles and terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, Hamas etc, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Harkat reward the families of killed terrorists.

Collaboration with criminals:

Jehadis often hire criminals to do their dirty work and at time themselves turn to petty or organised crime. Criminals are typically hired to drop weapons and explosives or to carry out extreme acts of violence that a typical Jehadi may be reluctant or unable to perform. Members of the Dubai-based Dawood Ibrahim at the instance of ISI bombed the Bombay stock exchange in March 1993. Some of the members arrested subsequently told police that they had been trained in subversion by Jehadi groups.

Bizarre Designs:

Jihadi groups proclaim their plans to bring Jihad to India proper as well as to the west, which they believe is run by jews. Jehadists adore Hitler, the fascist supremo of Germany during Second World War. The students from Burma, Nepal, Chechnya, Bangladesh, Sinkiang, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mongolia, Kuwait, Uzbekistan etc. have been found undergoing subversion training in Jihadi schools in Pakistan.

Roots of Jihadi Culture:

Pakistan’s vulnerability to Jihadi culture is in-built in the ideology of the state it has pursued. Its quest for an identity and self-image based on religion and adversorial relationship with India has predisposed to the emergence of Jihadi culture. Pakistan journalists Khalid Ahmed and Najam Sethi have eloquently commented on this. Mr Ahmed in an article, “Mediavalisation on the Eve of 2000 AD” writes that Pakistan rulers, in particular General Zia to legitimise himself, medievalised the state through the constitution and the textbooks. These history books were written a fresh to popularise a purely Muslim version of events. He has described how the Pakistani state indoctrinated the masses in favour of a revival of the medieval state rather than a ‘modern’ state. Najam Sethi, Editor of the Friday Times,  in  a speech delivered at Delhi on April 30, 1999 characterised the mentality and outlook of Pakistani state as that of a historically besieged state. He said Pakistan was more a state-nation rather than a nation-state. It was the foreign policy which runs its domestic policy rather than the other way round. He suggested that the Pakistani State has come to be fashioned largely in response to perceived propaganda and real and imagined threats to its national security from India. Its conceptions of national security, defined in conventional military terms dominate the state thinking. All this has resulted in the lack of development of sustainable and stable democratic political culture, leading to the spawning of extra-state institutions espousing Islamic fundamentalism and Jehad.

Internal Sectarianism:

Promotion of Jehadi culture has recoiled back on Pakistan society, besides damaging Pakistan’s fragile international reputation. There is growing internal sectarianism militarisation of civil society, and deteriation of law and order. The problem of Musharraf is that it is difficult to promote the “Jehad” in Kashmir and the Taliban in Afghanistan without inadvertently promoting sectarianism in Pakistan. The movements share madrasahas, camps, bureaucracies, and operatives. The Jamaat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam, the founding party of anti-Shia outfit Sipaha-e-Sahaba, also helped create both the Taliban and Harkat. Deobandi madrasahs issue anti-Shia fatwas (edicts) and boys trained to fight in Kashmir are also trained to call Shi’a Kafirs. Jaesh-e-Mohammad, an off shot of Harkat, founded by Maulana Azhar and the newest Pakistani militant outfit in Kashmir, reports say, used Sipaha-e-Sahaba personnel during a fund-raising drive in early 2000. Sipaha-e-Sahaba cadres regularly join Taliban, Harkat or Jaesh-e-Mohd--all groups with Deobandi orientation. Sipaha-e-Sahaba (SSP) recently claimed that it has opened a branch in Kashmir. The emergence of SSP and Jaesh-e-Mohammad in Kashmir has been responsible for anti-Shia orientation among the new terrorists and attacks on them. Shia leaders and congregations have been the targets of attacks by terrorists in Kashmir. Attacks on Sikhs are also being linked to these new developments.

Inside Pakistan, thousands of Pakistani have been killed in sectarian clashes since 1990. The American scholar Vali Nasr, remarks that the largely theological differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims have been transformed into full-fledged political conflict, with broad ramifications for law and order, social Cohesion, and government authority.

Liberals blame America:

There is growing concern over role of America vis-a-vis of rise of Jihadi groups and towards Pakistan government. Pakistani officials accuse US, along with Saudi Arabia, of creating the first international “Jihad” to fight the Soviet Union during the Afghan war. They ask, “does America expect us to send in the troops and shut the madrasahs down? Jihad is a mindset. It developed over many years during the Afghan war. Your can’t change a mindset in 24 hours”.

America has also contributed to one of the most successful disinformation campaigns launched by Pak military Junta. The Pak army seeks to sell the entirely self-serving image of being the last bastion of liberalism to a people besieged by fanatical Islamists. The Army Junta has been using this campaign to two ends. One it has been trying to seek concessions from India over Kashmir on the plea that General Musharraf’s position vis-a-vis Islamists would be strengthened, and fallout of the dangers of a fundamentalist takeover in Pakistan prevented. Secondly, it has used the plausibility of denial that it is in no position to rein in Jihadi groups that operate autonomously. Buy allowing Jihadi groups to operate with impunity it has succeeded in maintaining pressure on ground in Kashmir. This is contested by Pakistan watchers. They argue that “the army and intelligence agencies, having created the Islamists, continue to wield enormous influence over them.” Prashant Sareen, the area specialist observes,” the problem, therefore, is not so much of the army’s declining capability in reining in the Islamists as it is of ideological and policy divisions within it that prevents such crackdown”.

The Prospect:

Can there be any solution which will root out Jihadi culture in Pakistan? Jessica Stern, who specialises on Jihadi groups says that “Pakistan must recognise the militant groups for what they are: dangerous gangs whose resources and reach continue to grow, threatening to destabilize the entire region”. She laments that “Pakistan’s continued support of religious militant groups suggests that it does not recognise its own susceptibility to the culture of violence it has helped create.” The Pakistani militants’ continued incursions into J&K escalate the conflict, greatly increasing the risk of nuclear war, Stern adds. With no solution aimed at making Pakistan give up this mindset stamping out corruption, strengthening democracy and broadbasing education will not help.

All parties must work for restoration of peace in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Oct 7: The state secretary of CPI(M) Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami today demanded an unconditional unilateral cease-fire by Government of India (GoI) in the state.

Addressing a press conference here, he said Centre being the main party has primary responsibility for the restoration of peace and solution of Kashmir issue. “The government must not wait for the militants to announce the cease fire and should take a bold initiative by announcing an unconditional and unilateral cease-fire”, Tarigami said.

He observed that the announcement of cease-fire would create  appositive feeling among the Kashmiri masses and generate a good will towards the centre. “The image of union government continues to be tarnished on human rights and democratic fronts”, the CPI(M) leader said and added that it can raise it popularity graph not only here but at the international level also by the bold initiative.

Asked whether his demand will get a positive response from his party high command and at official level. Tarigami viewed that CPI(M) leadership has already been apprised about it and hoped that at official level the demand will be responded positively.

“The Government of India must treat Kashmir as a human problem and try to solve it through humanitarian means. Whosoever gets killed here-whether a militant, a security man or a civilian, they are all human being and this bloodshed must come to an end”, he said.

To a question as how the militants would respond once the GoI announces a cease-fire he said militants claim that they represent the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, who want restoration of peace and a political and dignified solution of the issue.

“If the militants are really concerned about the people, they will have to respond positively to Indian cease-fire”, he said. According to him the Hizbul Mujahideen cease-fire was not a coincidence, it represented the wish of the people, who want early return of the peace. “I will not go into details of its failure, but I would definitely say that people all over the Valley had a sigh of relief during the cease-fire period,” Tarigami said. The atrocities on people came down considerably. The farmers would remain out in their farms and orchards till late evening hours and same was the case with shopkeepers.

As the cease-fire ended lives of people in villages turned into hell again and they are suffering immensely. If the Central government has any concern about the people here, it should adopt a humanely approach and announce the cease-fire.

Tarigami urged the secular minded and peace loving people of the country to come to the rescue of Kashmiri people and pressurise the government to end the anti-people policies. “They must mount pressure on Centre to adopt a realistic approach towards Kashmir issue and treat the people living in this state as human beings”, he said.

The CPI(M) leader stated that since day one he was very keen to see this bloodshed coming to and end. He said he raised the issue at relevant fora a number of times. Tarigami wrote letters to chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and senior Hurriet Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani asking them to work for ending the violence and solution of Kashmir issue through peaceful means.

“But they did not respond to the letters”, he said.

Tarigami stated that gun has played its role in projecting the Kashmir issue. “Now it is the time for ending this gun culture and solving the issue through political means”, he said.

Courtesy: The Kashmir Times

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