Author: Josy Joseph, in Shrinagar
Publication: Rediff On The Net
Date: March 13, 2001
The Bush administration in the United
States plans to set up its own intelligence network in Jammu & Kashmir
for independent inputs on the situation in the state.
Reliable sources said a group of
officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in New Delhi
visited the Valley early this year and made contact with several people,
"basically second-rung leaders of the Hurriyat and some prominent locals,"
according to an Indian official in Shrinagar.
A second-rung Hurriyat leader and
a prominent youth leader of the J&K Liberation Front said the American
attempts at creating an intelligence network "began some time last year
with contacts with people amongst us."
Officially, the FBI does not play
any role in gathering external intelligence. The agency set
up an office in New Delhi after President Bill Clinton's visit last year.
Indian officials believe the FBI
office "will provide the key input on Kashmir for the US administration."
"During the Clinton period, we found
that whatever information we shared with the US was almost fully corroborated
and agreed to in public by the administration," a senior official in Shrinagar
said.
"We have definite information that
their recent visits are part of their attempts to set up their own, independent
information-gathering machinery. Probably, they want to get
an entirely free and strictly independent perspective. That
could be decisive for India," a Union government representative in Shrinagar
told this correspondent.
The FBI team's visit to the Valley
is believed to be the beginning of US efforts to provide a fresh perspective
on the situation in Kashmir independent of the growing threat of Islamic
terrorism around the world.
Sources indicated that a team of
officials from the US Central Intelligence Agency may visit the Valley
in the next few weeks.
Senior government officials indicate
that the peace efforts in Kashmir could pick up steam once the Bush administration
settles down. President George W Bush has yet to appoint an
assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, to succeed Karl F
Inderfurth. "After that we could find some stepped-up efforts,"
a senior official said.
Meanwhile, senior Hurriyat Conference
leader and pro- Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani
demanded that the United Nations impose sanctions on India.
Reacting to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's ongoing visit to South Asia,
Geelani said, "He should know which country has been creating obstacles
for the implementation of UN resolutions."