Author: M Rama Rao
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: May 27, 2003
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/270503-features.html
May 21 marks the death anniversary
of two contemporary leaders of the Kashmir scene. Both had fallen victims
of the gun culture they abhorred. `The mehman terrorists', as Abdul Gani
Lone used to address these `gun wielding jehadi groups,' gunned down Mirwaiz
Maulvi Farooq at his residence in 1990. Eleven years later, 70-year old
Lone himself became a target of the assassins in broad day light at "Martyrs
Graveyard", on Eidgah grounds in Srinagar as he was offering his tributes
to Mirwaiz.
Both had the courage of conviction
to stand up to pressures and declare openly their faith in dialogue as
an instrument in solving problems. Their death, particularly the killing
of Lone was a major blow to all those who believed in the efficacy of dialogue
but the latest Srinagar initiative of prime minister Vajpayee shows that
their ideology continues to live on. Those who had killed Lone and those
who had master minded the assassination have failed despite their brave
face.
The discomfiture in the Pakistan
camp is quite evident. 'Jehad will continue', says Sayyed Salahuddin, but
his Hizbul Mujahideen enjoys no special status any longer in the land of
its birth. It is on par with other fits in so far the US inspired ban on
jehadi groups Pervez Musharraf is forced to clamp to be in syncwith the
`changed times'. JeM, LeT and their various new and old variants fare no
better.
Admittedly, it is too early to say
that dialogue process has been in set in motion and is making head way.
To reach that conclusion we will have to wait a little while more, probably
till Musharraf gets back from this Camp David visit. Till then, multi-speak
will continue to be the hallmark of Islamabad as much to please the domestic
audience as to keep off balance the prospective Indian interlocutors. New
Delhi is no less past master in this art. So, it can be expected to pay
back handsomely to the dismay of Indian friends in Islamabad and elsewhere.
But then sabre-rattling can never
be a oneway street. It will be naive on the part of anyone who matters
in India to believe that `jehadi attacks' will come down in their intensity
and severity in the days ahead. In fact, India will have to be prepared
to a step-up vigil. The jehadi masters have a vested interest in keeping
up, if possible even in pushing up, the tempo of militancy. That way they
can hope to sell the myth they have no control over `jehad in Kashmir'.
Whether there will be any takers for such a contention even at this stage
is a different thing.
The fact of the matter is such a
fig leaf will be offered to wash their dirty hands soaked in the blood
of the innocent. Even now they are doing it. For instance, Salahuddin claims
he has no bases in POK and all his men are positioned in J&K. How Salahuddin
expects the world to believe his word when he himself is living in the
cosy comfort of Pakistan is any body's guess. Probably, he and his ilk
have no concern for the outside world as long as they serve the purpose
decreed by their puppet master at the GHQ, Rawalpindi.
Well, the United States has told
the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) that there was no good terrorism
as opposed to bad terrorism. The ISI chief has been asked not toentertain
the mistaken belief that Islamabad could force India to the negotiating
table by stepping up Kashmir specific violence. Given its track record
and its charter, it is doubtful to what extent ISI will be constrained
to heed the advice, at least in the short to medium term.
There is no gain saying, however,
that New Delhi will have to remain on the alert to foil any games the ISI
and its parent will like to play in the days ahead before a formal dialogue
gets underway between the two neighbours. The ISI is known to be behind
the killing of Abdul Gani Lone. He had resisted pressure from ISI to boycott
the assembly elections even a month before his assassination.
Lone, along with another moderate
Hurriyat voice, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, had gone to Dubai ( April 2002) to
attend a conference where the president of Pakistan- Occupied Kashmir (POK)
National Committee on Kashmir, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, was also present.
Top ISI officers, including its director Lt Gen Ahsan-ul-Haq and Kashmir
Cell chief Brigadier Abdullah tried their best to coax them. Lone and Mirwaiz
stuck to their grounds. In fact, Lone told the ISI chief in his usual blunt
manner that they did not understand the ground realities in Kashmir.
The Peoples' Conference founder
had reasons to behave the way he did. Once he was convinced of any thing,
he was known to speak his mind irrespective of his audience. His political
graph from the Congress to Janata amoeba and, Hurriyat to peacenik bears
this out. And so did his blunt speak in Pakistan, where he had gone for
the marriage of his son Sajjad to JKLF leader Amanullah Khan's son, United
States, where he was there for a while for treatment and New Delhi a place
he knew well.
The turn out at and the outcome
of the assembly election was a testimony to Lone's ability to read the
groundswell of support for peace based on a new political order. But he
could not expect his `friends' across the border to appreciate the reality.
That was why he earned their wrath by telling them `ordinary Kashmiris
were tired of the decade -long violence and wanted peace'. His description
of jehadi groups as `mehman terrorists who had outlasted their welcome
in the Valley' could have sealed his fate. It was not for nothing his son
Sajjad's first reaction on May 21, 2002 was: "The ISI is behind the killing
of my father".
Officially the assassination remains
a mystery. No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the dastardly
attack. But security intercepts three days after the killing zeroed in
on the LeT. The intercept was of a conversation between one Abu Hadid operating
in Srinagar and a LeT control station in Pakistan Hadid was responsible
for the killing. He accomplished the task with the help of two other LeT
terrorists Abu Hamza and Abu Rahel (all Pak nationals). Filed guidance
to them was provided by Abu Samas, LeT's operational commander in the Valley.
It may be recalled Lone's assassination
coincided with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to the State.
In that sense, it was a deliberate attempt by ISI and its puppets to project
to the world that there continued to be "trouble and turmoil" in Jammu
and Kashmir. Probably they had an urgency to divert attention from their
`domestic turmoil' caused by the split in Salahuddin's Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
This split and, Lone's call for political parties to respond to the Indian
initiative to hold free and fair elections had the potential of undermining
the proxy war. So the bullets that silenced Lone's voice were a warning
shot to those on the fence and to the Majid Dar faction of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
that had chartered its own course.
It was a gamble that failed. Instead
it marked a turning point in Kashmir politics. The simmering resentment
against Pakistan- sponsored violence, Lone had occasions to highlight,
found an unprecedented expression at the ballot box to pave the way for
`healing touch'.
Agreed. The changed circumstances
did not `save' Majid Dar and his colleagues, who became victims of the
Hizb killing fields over the past couple of months. Like Lone, Dar too
had tried to chart out a course that could have brought peace through the
negotiating table. One thing can be said though in support of these two
leaders. Their sacrifice had not gone in vain.
There are more adherents to the
ideology of peace than ever before. The warm welcome to the Srinagar initiative
and the record Vajpayee had set by being the first prime minister to address
a rally in Srinagar in decades bear this out.
For progress to achieve the cherished
goal of Kashmir re-emerging as `paradise' on earth, a long way needs to
be traversed. For how long one doesn't know. Hopefully, it is going to
be short hop from where we are now. The key to future, needless to say,
unta and their factories exporting `mehman terrorists'.
