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Kashmir : Hizb leader shot dead |
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In a major breakthrough against the Kashmir militants, the police shot dead Hizb-ul Mujahideen chief operational commander Gazi Shahabuddin. The Hizb admitted it had lost “a proficient and valiant commander” in his death, but asserted that “his martyrdom would only strengthen the jihadi movement” and that “the day when the people of Kashmir will achieve freedom is not very far.” Gazi, a resident of Khonmoh village on the outskirts of Srinagar, replaced Riyaz Rasool as the Hizb’s chief operational commander following his killing by security forces on January 16 this year.
Polling in Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla constituencies has been low following threats from militants.
Fencing stops infiltration
On the other front, fencing work on the Line of Control (LoC) has almost been completed and right now there is no infiltration from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir, Army Chief General N C Vij has said. “The fencing work on LoC has almost been completed and work in some of the areas is nearing completion,” Vij told reporters. He said right now there was no infiltration from across the border and three infiltration bids in the past few months had been effectively thwarted by the vigilant troops. However, he said that troops would have to wait and watch for next two months as and when snow melts and passes open to judge the exact trend of infiltration. “It is only after two months we can exactly say whether infiltration has declined, as of now, because of fencing and snowfall level of infiltration is low,” he said.
About the strength of foreign mercenaries, Vij said it has gone down by 50 per cent as many of them have been eliminated by the Army in the recent times. The local militants are also lying low, he said. He said Al-Qaeda could be supporting and encouraging the militant outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir though it is not directly involved in militancy in the state. “There could be nexus between Al-Qaeda and militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir, but the outfit is not directly involved,” he said.
About poll violence, he said that it was less than what it was in the preceding years during Parliamentary elections in the state.
Accusing the Ansari-led faction of the Hurriyat Conference of conniving with the Centre on elections, Chairman of breakaway amalgam Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has been leading an anti-election campaign, has said that polls were not a solution to the Kashmir issue which could only be resolved through tripartite talks or implementation of the UN resolutions.
He has claimed that the elections to the Lok Sabha were “farce and fraudulent” and the “poor turnout” showed that a majority of the people was with the “freedom movement.”
Meanwhile, the Ambassador of Luxembourg to India, Paul Steinmetz, is in Udhampur to witness the polling for the Lok Sabha seat on May 10. There are apprehensions of stepped-up terrorist violence particularly in Doda district in Udhampur constituency. Diplomats of several Western countries had visited various constituencies during the Assembly elections in 2002 when separatists and terrorist organisations had given a call for the boycott of the poll.
More than 200 additional companies of security forces have been sent to the Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency, which is the largest parliamentary seat in Jammu and Kashmir, for ensuring incident-free polling scheduled to be held on May 10. Security arrangements were further strengthened in the constituency following reports that groups of militants had sneaked into Doda and in the upper reaches of Udhampur districts from across South Kashmir.
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