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Last week 18 people were killed and 100 injured in a power full car bomb blast in Pulwama town in south Kashmir. The killing whether that of innocent civilians or the members of security forces or the militants, has become a matter of routine. There is no end in sight of the blood bath that the state is experiencing since 1989. Though the Hurriyat team had gone to PoK and Pakistan with the stated aim of convincing the extremists to come on board the peace efforts, they have failed to obtain a positive response from them. In Karachi Mirwaiz Umar Farooq the chairman of moderate faction of the Hurriyat said, "Now the time has come when the political and militant wings sit together and formulate a strategy for the settlement of Kashmir issue". Next day rejecting the Mirwaiz’s call the Hizibul leader Sayed Salahudin is reported to have said, "The situation in Kashmir has aggravated and in such circumstances the requirement for armed struggle had increased". Sayed Salahudin is a free man who travels the length and breadth of not only PoK but also Pakistan without any restriction. Unrestrained by the Pak Government he is at liberty to preach violence in Jammu & Kashmir.
Praising Pakistan’s information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed the JKLF chief Yasin Malik said in Islamabad, "Sheikh Rashid has played a great role for Kashmiris’ liberation. He used to support frontline Jehadis but very few people know about his contribution". Pakistan’s noted journalist and television anchor Hamid Mir supported Malik’s assertion. He said, "Rashid had set up the militant camp in his sprawling farm house near Fateh Jung, about 50 km from Islamabad, from 1988 to 1999 to train the cadre of the militants". Pakistani news paper ‘Daily Times’ has quoted Malik as saying that when militancy was at its zenith Pakistan’s information minister had set up a camp where 3500 Jehadis were trained in guerrilla war fare. If any further proof of Sheikh Rashid’s wicked act was needed it came from Pakistan’s two retired army generals. General Aslam Beg and General Naseer-ullah Babar have confirmed that Rashid had been running a militants training camp near Islamabad.
General Musharraf’s remarks regarding the Pulwama terrorists’ attack make no sense in the light of the fact that it was his own information minister who had been training the extremists in his farm house. A totally naïve person would believe that Musharraf is not aware that his information minister had been training 3500 militants to use weapons for mass killing people on this side of the LoC. If Musharraf is sincere in his peace overtures he should not have rewarded a terror manager by appointing him as his information minister. Even now what stops him from dismissing Sheikh Rashid and punishing him for his part in organising terrorist’s training camp on the Pakistani soil. Obviously the General’s failure to take stringent action against the minister his statement that "No one can exercise control over everyone everywhere that is happening in Kashmir I certainly don’t hold a whistle which I can blow and every bullet stops being fired" does not carry conviction.
In fact General Musharraf does hold the whistle but he is not willing to blow it because he and his stooges believe that it is the terrorist violence in J&K that has attracted world attention on Kashmir dispute. Sheikh Rashid’s case is similar to that of Pakistan’s discredited nuclear scientist Dr. A.Q. Khan who had been selling nuclear secrets to many countries including North Korea. It is clear that Musharraf will try to shield Rashid in the same way as he did in the case of Dr. Khan.
It is also noteworthy that Yasin Malik while addressing both houses of PoK assembly in Muzaffarabad had said, "A romantic aura created by the PoK leadership about militancy had activated very talented youth who latter lost their life". He cited the example of a cement factory owner and a pilot who were killed in the course of militancy in the valley. Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani has said that Pakistan was dancing to the America’s tune and "now some leaders of Kashmir have joined the party". Another separatist leader Bilal Lone has said that an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Kashmiri youth who crossed over to Pakistan are living in poor condition there. These certificates of Pak perfidy have been given by none other than the self styled representatives of the Kashmiris.
It is a well known fact that large number of terrorist camps continue to flourish in PoK and Pakistan. This has been confirmed by the Army commanders again and again. Pakistan’s duplicity in its dealings with India, particularly the Kashmiris, is fully exposed by this fact. Practically having failed in its proxy war Pakistan is now following the carrot and stick policy. Dangling the carrot of economic co-operation with India General is hiding the dagger up his sleeve. President Musharraf has realised that the Kashmiris are not going to support merger of their Valley with Pakistan. Now he talks of an autonomous region (read Valley) that according to his new plan will be demilitarised; so that his forces could have a free run of the region. This is the changed strategy for the proxy war that continues.
As was expected the Hurriyat leaders have come back empty handed. Pakistani rulers have practically dumped them by telling them that they should prove their representative credentials by fighting the elections in the state. Shujat Hussain former Prime Minister of Pakistan has publicly repudiated Hurriyat’s claim of being the sole representatives of the Kashmiri people. He said they are not the only ones who could represent the people of the state. There are other groups too he said. If after providing all these years "moral and political" support to the Kashmiri separatists for their "freedom struggle" Pakistan tells them now to prove their popularity by fighting elections what have they gained from the sixteen years unprecedented death and destruction in the state.
Pakistan has been shying away from the core issues of Gilgit, Baltistan and PoK. It is yet to explain as to why it has bartered away Aksaichin in Ladakh to China? How it has merged Gilgit and Baltistan where unprecedented human rights have continued to be violated for the last fifty-eight years? Pakistan must explain why violating the State Subject law of Jammu & Kashmir it has settled thousands of Pakistani nationals in PoK? Why it has disturbed the sectarian balance in Shia majority in Gilgit? Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has rightly reminded Musharraf regarding Northern Areas and Aksaichin. Dr. Manmohan Singh has said these issues will also be settled through dialogue.
Time has come when New Delhi should
seriously take up the above stated issues with Pakistan before proceeding
any further with the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). Before confidence
building the trust building has to come. Trust can come only when the parties
are honest and transparent in their dealings. With hundreds of people being
killed and injured by the Pakistani ISI inspired militants the "Confidence
Building" will fall like the house of cards any day. The violence must
stop first and that lies in the hands of General Musharraf.
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