Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
Ceasefire brings death and doom for "renegade" militants

Ceasefire brings death and doom for "renegade" militants

Author:
Publication: www.tehelka.com
Date: January 3, 2001

In the first month of the ceasefire as many as 70 surrendered militants and informers were gunned down by the militants.  This is said to be the highest number of counter-insurgents killed by militants in a month, writes Masood Hussain
 

Although Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's unilateral ceasefire move has led to a significant decrease in the militancy-related casualties in the strife-torn state, it has however proved a costly affair for the surrendered militants helping various security agencies in counter-insurgency (CI) operations.  In the first month of the ceasefire as many as 70 surrendered militants and informers were gunned down by the militants.  This is said to be the highest number of counter-insurgents killed by militants in a single month.

There is not a single day when a surrendered militant does not fall to the bullets of the militants.  In one of the cases, the militants ambushed a Maruti van carrying renegade militants at Wailoo village in south Kashmir's Anantnag and killed five of them.

Surrendered militants, it may be recalled here, has been the main force on which the state's counter-insurgency operation rests.  During the initial days of CI operations when the security forces were actually groping in the dark, it was these outfits which would help them to identify the real targets of the operations.  Initially, they would remain hooded and help the troops track down militants and their sympathisers from the population of a particular locality that was summoned out by the troops in 'crackdowns' - the name locals have given to cordon and search operations.

After the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimoon led by Mohammed Yousuf alias Kukka Parray, now a sitting MLA, broke away from mainstream militancy and avowedly shifted his sympathies with New Delhi, the renegades started asserting.  They began their war against the separatists by killing more than 500 militants and their sympathisers, mostly from the Hizb ul Mujahideen (HM) and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and dominated the scene for more than three years.

Their patronage by the army, paramilitary forces and the governor's administration made the Ikhwan cult an instant success and at one point of time there were more than six CI outfits - more than the militant outfits which were actually operating.  They started operating with impunity and did whatever they wished.  They made huge money by extortions, asking for ransoms and plundering public property including forests.

This led to a situation that when Dr Farooq Abdullah decided to participate in the 1996 polls, which sent him back to power, his promises of ending the Ikhwan culture were more pronounced than the restoration of autonomy.  Once in power, he felt it quite difficult to do away with the Ikhwan cult and in fact used some of them.  While he made one of the Ikhwan leaders, Javed Ahmad Shah, an MLC (Member of Legislative Council), his party literally accepted defeat from Sonawari constituency, the place where Kukka Parray had won, much before the polling took place.

However, in the post-Kargil era when militancy assumed demonic proportions, the Ikhwan cult also went on the defensive.  Militants started targeting them and literally in 1999, most of Kukka Parray's faithful commanders were killed in an IED (improvised explosive device) explosions.  This, however, did not deter them because they were given huge perks by the Indian army's Srinagar-based 15 Corps.

However, this is for the first time that they seem to be literally on the edge.  Since there are no public sympathies left and the ceasefire is not permitting security forces to operate outside the camps, the renegades taking the risk of moving out of the well-secured camps are getting killed.  And wherever they are being killed, they are taken by surprise.

On Tuesday evening a pro-government militant Farooq Bhat was killed in Nowgam (Srinagar) after a chase of over 15 minutes.  In Sumbal, the erstwhile den of the Ikhwan, Hamza Wani, one of its top leaders was killed in the main market.  The outfit had to resort to beating up people to garner support for a mourning strike from this north Kashmir township.

While official records suggest that there are over 1,200 militants who have surrendered and are working with the security forces, unofficial estimates put them at around 2,200, of them 400 dead.  The state government has managed the adjustment of 327 of them in the Border Security Force (BSF) and in the Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF) while rest of them are either functioning with the state police's anti-militancy SOG (Special Operations Group) or with various other security agencies.

The state government is paying a sum of Rs 1,800 to each of them while army and other agencies are also supporting them through their secret fund system.  However, the renegades are alleging that the state government's attitude is lackadaisical towards their problems.

Apart from the small bands of surrendered militants operating with different security agencies independently, at the moment, there are two main groups of them.  One is the Ikhwan-ul-Muslimoon, the main group led by Kukka Parray operating in particular stretches in north Kashmir - mostly in Sumbal-Bandipore belt.  Its influence has gone down after foreign militants made this area their base.  This outfit has given birth to the Awami League, the party from which Parray contested the polls.

The second is Al-Ikhwan which operates in south Kashmir's Anantnag and is led by Liyaqat.  It was earlier a part of the Kukka-led party, but separated in 1997.  After several of its leaders were killed by militants, the outfit lost its influence and is defunct at the moment.
 


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements