23 Dec 2000

GROUND REALITIES DIFFERENT, SAY FAROOQ, GILL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: In an apparent challenge to the Prime Minister's claim of success of "cease-fire", Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has submitted a confidential police report asserting that the militancy and the violence by militants has not declined since after the security forces began the "cease-fire" in the state last month.

The law and order being the state subject, the Jammu and Kashmir Police knows better about the crimes committed by the militants than the Centre, Dr Abdullah reportedly told Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani early this week during a meeting convened by the Home Ministry to assess situation in the state.

Dr Abdullah expressed anguish, during an informal chat with the Media, over the Centre's claims of success of the peace efforts contrary to the ground reality. He said facts and figures do not substantiate the Centre's claim of 80 per cent reduction in militancy since after the Prime Minister-sponsored "cease-fire" came into operation.

He is not against the peace efforts or the "cease-fire" per se, but he said he had submitted a confidential report showing that the "cease-fire" had no sobering effect on the militants as seen from no decline in the incidents of violence. He, however, declined to elaborate or divulge any details of the confidential report.

The Chief Minister is not alone in providing a negative assessment of the "cease-fire" impact on the very day Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced in Parliament its extension by another month until the Republic Day as the same day a minister of state in the Home Ministry told the Rajya Sabha that all militant outfits had rejected the Ramzan Month "cease-fire" posture of the government.

In his informal chat with Delhi journalists, Dr Abdullah also shared his anguish at the Centre giving more than the needed importance to the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Hizb-ul Mujahideen. He refuses to accept APHC's postures regarding the "cease-fire" as genuine as he contended that the Hurriyat leaders do not deserve trust since "they speak and do only what is tutored to them from across the border." He sought to point out that the APHC leaders want to travel to Pakistan on the very day the Panchayat elections will begin in Jammu and Kashmir on January 15.

Sources in the Home Ministry, however, point out that Dr Farooq Abdullah has raised his misgivings about the dialogue with the Hurriyat leaders every time some success is achieved only because he is scared of the Hurriyat leadership contemplating to end boycott of the democratic election process and participate in the next Assembly elections. His fears are quite genuine since his ruling National Conference may lose if the Hurriyat leaders feeding their particular views to the masses for the last so many years come forward to seek their votes. The Hurriyat Conference is, however, not participating in the Panchayat elections.

GILL'S GOOGLY: Meanwhile, former Punjab Police chief K P S Gill, who gained fame for successfully finishing terrorism in Punjab, has warned that rewarding the militants in Kashmir may prove very harmful. He said the "cease-fire" and significant decline in the exchange of fire on the borders between the armies of India and Pakistan have been appreciated by many, but overlooked in the enthusiasm is the other side.

Just in the first three weeks of the "cease-fire", more than 131 lives were lost and among them the percentage of the security personnel is more because they had to maintain restraint, says Gill writing in a Uttar Pradesh Hindi daily "Amar Ujala". He points out not to ignore the fact that the number of persons wounded in the militant attacks has rather gone up and the security personnel wounded are more than the civilians.

Admitting that the Prime Minister's "cease-fire" has brought a sea-change on the ground, Gill wonders if it would at all lead to a solution of the Kashmir problem as he contends that militancy is only one part of the Kashmir problem. He says just solution of one problem of militancy would not wipe out all other reasons behind the multiplicity of issues behind the ruin of the Kashmir valley. In his view, a permanent piece requires that all issues should be dealt with simultaneously instead of the piecemeal efforts to end militancy.

"We can not keep quiet about corruption and misrule until the the problem militancy is resolved. Corruption and maladministration are linked with militancy. It is corruption that helps the militancy to prosper on the money from the government treasuries. This is the speciality of the underground economy of militancy. A great help can come to tackle the militancy if the corruption were wiped out through a responsible and transparent governance," Gill affirms.

He says the unavailability of a trust-worthy political alternative has been the main obstacle to restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir. The judiciary has totally collapsed, civil administration has failed and the state police has become impotent and hence the urgency was to put each one of these back on the rails for improving the ground realities, Gill said.

A votary of crushing the militancy only with the might of military and security forces, Gill says appeasement of the militants through compromises and agreements would only lead to more violence. He points out that a line should be drawn between the hardened militants and a score of political, semi-political and other organisations sympathetic to their cause. He says these organisations may not be indulging in violence themselves but they require to be convinced that justice is possible even without violence. They need to be convinced that the state police and security forces are not against them or against the people of Kashmir but against those whose violence affects the Kashmiris, majority of whom are Muslims.

PAK TROOPS' PULLOUT: During his trip to Delhi, Dr Farooq Abdullah had also warned the Centre not to fall for Pakistan's claim of reducing its troops stationed at the Line of Control or the international border in Jammu and Kashmir. The Military Intelligence has substantiated his contention that Pakistan may be only hoodwinking India to persuade it to relax vigil at LoC and international border.

A Military Intelligence report just received by the Government in Delhi says Pakistan has withdrawn only those troops who had gone to the borders for the regular annual training exercise while some other troops are always withdrawn from the Himalayan mountains every winter because of the snowfall.

The MI report says there is absolutely no change in the frontline forces at the LoC or International Border. All that Pakistan Army has done is withdrawal of some 30,000 troops of two divisions which were carrying out the war exercises near the borders.

The withdrawals of these two divisions had begun about a fortnight ago in the Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Pakistan military regime tried to pretend it to be a positive response to India's declaration of the "cease-fire" continuation for another one full month, the MI report insists. No other back-movement of the Pakistani troops has been noticed since after the Pak announcement, the report said.

The MI report further adds that both India and Pakistan scale down the forces on the LoC during the winter when the snow-clad mountains make it very hard and difficult to station large number of troops which are also not required because the harsh winter makes it impossible for any massive intrusion or attack. END