Author: Vishwa Mohan
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 14, 2008
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/JK_blockade_staged_by_ISI_to_help_Hurriyat/articleshow/3362369.cms
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: It should
also be recognised that the media in India gave credence to the myth of the
blockade.]
As the agitation in the Kashmir valley against
a "non-existent" economic blockade continues, Pakistan's intelligence
agency, ISI, may be hoping to get through what it has failed to achieve all
these years - project its loyalists in the Hurriyat Conference as the real
representatives of the popular sentiments in the Valley.
The observation was made by senior intelligence
officers during high-level meetings on Tuesday-Wednesday amid mounting evidence
that Hurriyat was using the contrived complaint of 'economic blockade' to
nudge the people to look towards Pakistan-controlled Muzaffarabad.
The home ministry on Wednesday released figures
countering the claim of agitationists in the Valley about the economic blockade
and arguing that truckers and unions of fruit growers openly aligned with
Hurriyat were also engaged in myth-making about the blockade.
Claiming that there is no blockade at all
along the Srinagar-Jammu highway, the ministry said as many as 236 trucks
and tankers carrying oil, gas, sheep, medicines and poultry products crossed
the Jawahar Tunnel from the Jammu side early on Wednesday morning. Of these,
82 trucks and tankers had reached Srinagar by afternoon, it said.
Referring to the stranded trucks in the Valley,
an official said a fleet of them actually belonged to one individual known
for his close affiliation with Hurriyat. The transporter refused to move his
vehicles towards Jammu despite the promise of full security cover along the
route.
Home ministry officials said that the decision
of some of the fruit growers and truckers had more do with secessionist politics
than any genuine security concern.
On Wednesday, home minister Shivraj Patil
also told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that there was no blockade on the
Jammu-Srinagar highway and adequate security personnel were deployed for uninterrupted
movement of vehicles.
The figures only confirm the suspicion that
the blockade had been staged as part of ISI's design to help Hurriyat occupy
the space which had till now been occupied by political parties.
"It has long been one of the objectives
of the ISI to project the Hurriyat as the true representative of the Kashmiris.
Though it failed in the past, it now appears to have gained some ground towards
it this time particularly when even the mainstream political party PDP became
part of the design by joining Hurriyat's 'march to Muzaffarabad' call,"
said a senior home ministry official.
The official also pointed out how this episode
has even brought two sections of the Hurriyat - the group of Mirwaiz Umer
Farooq and the rebel faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani - together.
"The solution to the Amarnath land row
may be arrived at sooner than later, but the matter which brought the Kashmiris
on roads has relegated the efforts for normalcy in J&K to the background,"
said the official, referring this to be the biggest worry of security and
intelligence agencies.
The Jammu region has, however, a different
problem. In view of the Shri Amarnathji Sangarsh Samiti's decision to extend
the shutdown till August 20, the home ministry asked the paramilitary force
- deployed for providing security to the Amarnath pilgrims - not to leave
the state even after the end of the yatra on August 16.
Sources in the CRPF said that all the 5,000
paramilitary personnel would be diverted to the Jammu region considering the
extension of shutdown.
The Centre is, meanwhile, contemplating to
announce an economic package for those who were affected due to the agitation
in both the Jammu region and the Kashmir valley. The suggestion was given
by the all-party delegation which met twice in the past two days.
- vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com
