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Kashmir : Agitation over sex scandal continues |
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There is no let up in the protests launched by Kashmiri women against the alleged sex scandal involving some top politicians and bureaucrats and officers of security forces. Braving action by security forces including use of water cannons, burqa clad women continued their protests against the role of senior politicians and others in the scandal. One of their main demand was that the names of those involved be made public. Even the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), one of the two main partners of the coalition ruling the state, has demanded that names of those who have been mentioned by the women involved in their statements should be made public. Speaking at a rally, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “If instead of being discreet about the identity of the women, some of whom are innocent victims and even minors, the administration has exposed their names and faces, when it should have protected them. Then, why should it wait till investigations are over to reveal the names of those who have been named by the women in their statements ?”
PDP sources say Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beg was the first to demand a CBI probe into the scam and had asked the Chief Minister to expose the names of the accused.
With Congress president Sonia Gandhi taking a “serious” view of the matter and asking the state government to act on it, the issue has moved into the CBI domain. But now that the issue has taken a political turn, Mehbooba Mufti has decided to take up the issue with the Congress high command; she is arriving in Delhi on May 16.
Meanwhile, the CBI which has been entrusted with the investigation of the scandal, has registered a case against accused Sabina and ‘unknown persons’. A CBI team has gone to Srinagar to get to the bottom of the case.
The scandal has come in handy for militants to build up support among the local people. Separatist groups of late hadbeen finding little backing in the Muslim population for their hardline demands and violent actions. The sex scandal has given the militant a new weapon of morality to get the people to support them.
PDP wants measured reduction of troops
While Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the demand for demilitarization of Jammu and Kashmir, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), says that it is in favour of measured reduction of troops and withdrawing the acts giving special powers to the armed forces. Speaking at the end of a two-day special session of the party’s general council in Srinagar, the PDP founder and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said that the Kashmir issue needs immediate attention so that there is durable peace in the region. “We are ready for any sacrifice to ensure that the people of the state come out of the psychological dilemma of decades impeding their prosperity,” he said, urging all political parties , both mainstream and separatist, to contribute towards the peaceful resolution of this vexed problem. At the same time, he urged the militants to respond to the people’s yearning for peace and announce a ceasefire. He said history has provided a great opportunity to us to bring Jammu and Kashmir out of the morass and put it back on the path of peace and prosperity. “Let us not miss the bus as such occasions rarely come in the history of nations,” he said and added that if everybody acts with responsibility and sensibly at this crucial juncture, a breakthrough is sure.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that the second round table to be held in Srinagar on May 25 provides an historic opportunity to finding a solution to the Kashmir issue. Speaking on the occasion of opening of Government offices in Srinagar after the Darbar move, he expressed the hope that the separatists would play their role in this task.
The security forces, in the meantime, gunned down a socalled district commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, on May 7, in an ambush. The 35-year old militant Mushtaq Ahmed Bhatt was reported to be the brain behind all major car bomb blasts in the Kashmir Valley in the recent past.
In another incident, a crack team of Army commandos and police sharp-shooters shot down a top Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami terrorist in Kupwara district on May 9. He was believed to be involved in the March 7 Varanasi blasts.
There are reports that terrorists are spreading their tentacles in other parts of the country. The anti-terrorist squad of the Maharashtra Police arrested three terrorists near Aurangabad on May 9 and recovered a huge cache of arms and explosives. There are reports that the terrorists were planning to blow up the historic Ellora Caves.
Two alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were arrested in Delhi on May 8 along with arms and explosives. They were reported to be planning to target Kandla port in Gujarat.
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