Author: B.Raman
Publication: South Asia Analysis
Group
Date: September 16, 2003
URL: http://www.saag.org/paper8/paper790.html
(This may please be read in continuation
of my earlier article of May 29, 2003, titled "Jamaat-e- Islami, Hizbul
Mujahideen & Al Qaeda" )
The situation in Jammu & Kashmir,
which was showing definitive signs of normalisation since the coming into
office of a new coalition Government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad
Sayeed in October last year, is again giving cause for concern, with a
deterioration in the ground situation.
2. Amongst the positive signs of
normalisation, one could cite the two successful visits by the Prime Minister,
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to Srinagar since April, the visit by Smt. Sonia
Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress (I), the remarkable revival
of domestic tourism with over 100,000 tourists from other parts of India
visiting the valley this summer and the uninterrupted flow of Hindu pilgrims.
3. During his first visit, the Prime
Minister addressed a well-attended public meeting in Srinagar, the first
by a Prime Minister in nearly a decade. His second visit was to preside
over a meeting of the inter-State Council, which was attended by many Chief
Ministers from the rest of India. Sonia Gandhi visited Srinagar to preside
over a brain-storming session of her party leaders from all over India.
The fact that all these meetings could be held without any major security
problem spoke well of the improvement in the ground situation.
4. Amongst other positive signs
were the revival of normal political activity with State leaders from different
mainstream political parties undertaking tours of their constituencies
for mass contact with the people and indications of the moderate elements
in the Hurriyat Conference, being unhappy over the way pan-Islamic Pakistani
Punjabi organisations, which are members of Osama bin Laden's International
Islamic Front (IIF,) have hijacked the militant movement started by some
indigenous Kashmiri elements in 1989, to achieve their own pan-Islamic
objectives, which have nothing to do with the interests and objectives
of the Kashmiris.
5. This unhappiness was reflected
in the way the moderate elements marginalised the pro-Pakistan elements
led by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and had them
excluded from positions of influence in the Hurriyat. To this, the pro-Pakistan
elements retaliated by convening a meeting of the pro-Pakistan
rump and expelling the moderate elements, which has resulted in a split.
6. It was not as if violence had
completely stopped in the valley during this period. Sporadic acts of terrorism
continued to take place, with the focus on eliminating moderate elements
such as Abdul Majeed Dhar of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), who was reportedly
unhappy with the way Syed Salauddin, the Pakistan-based Amir of the HM,
was completely towing the line of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) and JEI led by Qazi Hussain Ahmed.
7. The Indian Prime Minister's continued
insistence on the stoppage of Pakistan-sponsored cross- border terrorism
before India could agree to talks with the military-civilian hotch-potch
Government in Islamabad and international, particularly US, understanding
of the Indian stand and concerns over the continuing cross-border infiltration
of terrorists from Pakistan have resulted in the ISI and the JEI, despite
political differences over Pervez Musharraf's continuing to hold office
as the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) to which the JEI is opposed and over
the validity of the constitutional amendments arbitrarily promulgated by
him before the elections in Pakistan last year, joining hands in an attempt
to re-kindle acts of terrorism in the valley.
8. Consequently, in recent weeks,
more particularly since the Prime Minister's second visit to Srinagar last
month, acts of terrorism have been stepped up in the valley and there are
indications of a similar attempt to orchestrate acts of terrorism in Mumbai
and other parts of India. Amongst the organisations being used in this
regard are the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e- Mohammad (JEM) and the
HM. The LET and the JEM, both Pakistani Punjabi organisations, have been
responsible for most of the acts of terrorism, particularly suicide terrorism,
in J&K and other parts of India since they joined the IIF after its
formation by bin Laden in 1998.
9.The HM is the appendage of the
JEI of Qazi Hussain Ahmed of Pakistan. The HM, whose leaders and their
training camps were thrown out of Afghanistan by the Taliban after it captured
Kabul in September,1996, because of its links with Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's
Hizbe Islami (HI), which was then fighting against the Taliban, has recently
joined hands with the dregs of the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the HI operating
against the security forces of the Hamid Karzai Government in Afghanistan
from sanctuaries in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan
of Pakistan, with the complicity of serving and retired officers of the
Pakistani Army and ISI.
10. At the same time, the HMt has
also joined hands with the LET and the JEM for stepping up acts of terrorism
in Indian territory. A group of serving officers of the Pakistani Army
and the ISI headed by Gen. Mohammed Aziz, a member of the Sudan tribe from
Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), who is presently Chairman, Joint Chiefs
of Staff Committee, and a group of retired officers headed by Lt.Gen. (retd)
Hamid Gul, former Director-General of the ISI, have been guiding the operations
of these pro-bin Laden groups in both Afghanistan and India.
11. It would be incorrect to view
their activities as being undertaken without the knowledge or approval
of Musharraf, who has been covertly approving their operations while ostensibly
marking his distance from them. The remarks of Aziz, indirectly critical
of Musharraf, while addressing a meeting at Rawalakot in POK, while Musharraf
was away to the US for his Camp David summit with President Bush in June
last, were made with his prior nod in order to create an impression that
the activities of these groups in Afghanistan and India were without Musharraf's
approval.
12. According to well-informed sources,
Musharraf had invited about three months ago Dr. Pervez Hoodboy, a faculty
member of the Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad,
and some other Pakistani intellectuals for a discussion on Kashmir. He
reportedly told them: "If we completely shut down all training camps and
assistance, the Kashmir issue will become cold beyond recovery".
(The writer is Additional Secretary
(retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and, Convenor, Advisory Committee,
Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
