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Kashmir : Search for solution

	January 21, 2002

Desptie the hype over his address, New Delhi has noted that Musharraf, even while renouncing terrorism for the Kashmir cause, has repeated his usual formula on the J & K issue .He talks of Kashmir being in the Pakistani blood. The Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan share their ethnicity. Yet, given the circumstances, Pakistanis are prepared to accept the realities in Afghanistan. So, Musharraf‘s Kashmir rhetoric need not be taken at face value. When Pakistan becomes a moderate Islamic state and Pakistanis change their mindset they are bound to view Kashmir in a new light and understand that their addiction to Kashmir is only a consequence of their extremism rooted in the two nation theory and cult of terrorism, says defence analyst K. Subrahmanyam.

When General Musharraf sets out to reform Pakistan and purge it of extremism and terrorism, he has to go back to Jinnah and Mohammed Iqbal. If the wily Pakistan leader has achieved anything it is the refocus of the world‘ s attention on this issue in contrast to the period when it was nearly forgotten between 1972, when the Simla agreement was signed and 1989 when militancy made its appearance in the state. In a way those were the wasted years for India since it frittered away the advantages provided by Pakistan ‘s 1971 humiliation by indulging in the petty political manoeuvres which included the toppling of Farooq Abdullah’s first government.

Similar mistakes should not be repeated. That same lessons have been learnt is evident from the recent pledges by Atal Bihari Vajpayee with regard to the fairness of the next round of elections in Kashmir.It is promise which must be honoured if India is to tell the world that the elections in the state ,as in the rest of the country are its own version of a plebiscite for ascertaining the will of the people. It is the way by which India has tamed its subversives in the north-east where former rebels have ended up by swearing allegiance to the Indian Constitution. An election will cause fissures in the ranks of the Hurriyat between those who will prefer to listen to the voice of the people and those (who are likely to be in a hopeless minority) choosing to stick to the gun.

The militants will not fade away. There may be even an increase in their depredations as Jehadi groups, dismayed by the crackdown in Pakistan, will try to show that they are still around. The ISI, too, may continue to provide undercover assistance to them. But even a proforma renunciation of the fundamentalists by Pakistan is bound to provide some relief from the kind of insensate violence from which the people of Kashmir have been suffering for so long.

According to Pratap Bhanu Mehta , Professor of Philosophy, Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kashmir will stay alive as a diplomatic and political issue. General Musharraf has very cleverly avoided emphasizing Pakistan’s claims to Kashmir .He is instead speaking the language of self-determination for Kashmiris. This is a proposition that has to be taken seriously and it will be morally and politically awkward for New Delhi not to confront this issue.

Offering a plebiscite is, of course, a long way off. Political realities in India and Pakistan will have to change considerably before that is a viable option. But to claim that India cannot negotiate on Kashmir is, at this juncture a non-starter .It is perhaps too soon to sketch out another solution to the problem, but one has to think of more imaginative arrangements that give Kashmiris some measure of sovereignty, but allow India to protect its vital interests .The rest of the world is busy experimenting with novel political forms that bind regions together and devolve more power to the sub units .It would be the credit to Indian democracy and to the best of national aspirations if “we slowly free ourselves from the obsession with territoriality that has taken a heavy price on us. What we should discuss with Pakistan is the creation of the conditions where such experiments, especially in the case of Kashmir become possible.



Strategy for talks with Pakistan

India’s war against terrorism has entered the second phase since December 13. Pakistan has committed itself to take action against terrorist organisations and Musharraf has declared that terrorism must be stopped. The next phase would be to find a political solution to the Kashmir situation through talks with Pakistan, defence expert Jagjit Singh says

First, the realities. Kashmir is described as the “core issue” for Pakistan, that it runs in their blood as per Musharraf who conducted the war in Kargil. But so is it for India ,though for different reasons but with far greater justification and legitimacy.The conflict between India and Pakistan is fundamentally an ideological one and Kashmir only represents the tragic consequence of that conflict between the idea that every human being is equal ( and hence the democratic principle and practice)and the contrary that only one sect of religion defines the equation between human beings. This conflict may take a long time to get moderated and meanwhile what is needed is peace and stability.

Unfortunately, both India and Pakistan are left with no negotiating space for arriving at a solution peacefully. Space for give and take is necessary for any solution complicated over the decades as Kashmir is. And war could hardly be conceived as an option in present times.

Pakistan tried that in the summer of 1999 with disastrous results for itself. India’s own interests require durable peace undisturbed by external interference especially with extremist violence and terror. There are agreements with Pakistan, including the Simla agreement) which commit both sides not to use force against each other regardless of any interpretation. This rules out support to terrorism which Pakistani elites saw as the low cost option to take Kashmir and inflict continuing pain on India through the proverbial “thousand cuts”. There are signs that this has become counter productive for Pakistan and its commitment to UN Resolution 1373, and the SAARC Convention on Suppressing Terrorism and Islamabad is under pressure to roll back its strategy of terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

As things move along the above lines, Pakistan would shift the focus of terrorism to J&K and increasingly press for meaningful talks on Kashmir. India’s first priority, should therefore be, to create the requisite negotiating space for give and take which does not cut into its interests and enlarge the options. This can only be done on the basis of two principles:that the whole State is part of India and secondly, the need for defensible frontiers in J&K. That J&K is an integral part of India should be emphasised and assume greater seriousness in the days ahead and should form the political framework under which India would address the Kashmir issue.

The Prime Minister will soon have a third shot at promoting peace with Pakistan. Although the current military confrontation between India and Pakistan remains to be defused, the speech by Musharraf and India’s response to it suggests that the two sides have turned an important corner. Now it is a matter of time before India and Pakistan will sit down again to find answers to the difficult challenge that confronts them. After the unsuccessful attempt at Lahore in 1999 and Agra in 2001, Vajpayee appears to have a definite chance of getting it right this time.

The announced fundamental change of direction in Pakistan and the intense involvement of the international community in preventing a war between the two nuclear rivals provide a totally different template for Vajpayee’s third attempt at reconciliation with Pakistan. What Lahore and Agra failed to achieve to get a commitment from Musharraf on ending cross-border terrorism has been imposed upon Pakistan by Sept 11 and Dec 13. That should make it easier now to initiate a productive peace process between India and Pakistan. The negotiating exercise at Agra covered considerable ground and if cross-border terrorism is removed from the equations one saw at Agra, a political level dialogue on key issues of Indo-Pak relations can begin fairly quickly.

Says columnist C. Raja Mohan : “India’s objective must be to step up the diplomatic pressure on Musharraf to deliver quickly on the ground the promises he had made on cross-border terrorism and at the same time renew New Delhi’s commitment to begin a serious and substantial negotiation on the Kashmir dispute. There is a deep sense of anxiety in Pakistan that having been forced to give up the instrument of cross-border terrorism, it will find a New Delhi that is no longer enthusiastic about negotiating about Kashmir. It should not be difficult for India to dispel those fears. After all Vajpayee has repeatedly proclaimed his desire for an engagement with Pakistan on the Kashmir dispute. In his Musings, published on New Year’s day, as well as last New Year, Vajpayee had declared the readiness to get off the beaten track in finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute.

Vajpayee has now the unprecedented combination of international and regional circumstances to push for a final solution to the vexatious dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir. He might be third time lucky. The key to the realisation of Vajpayee’s political objectives in Kashmir lies with the US which is in a position to get Musharraf to deliver on cross-border terrorism and encourage Pakistan to accept a fair and reasonable solution to the dispute that has hobbled the sub-continent since partition.



India to wait for change in ground situation

India’s future course of action vis-a-vis Pakistan would depend on a change in the ground situation, including the stoppage of infiltration, arms supply and refuge to terrorists by Islamabad, Home Minister L.K. Advani has stated. While describing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s televised speech last week as “important and path-breaking”, he pointed out mere speech was not enough. India will decide its future course of action on the basis of these responses,” Advani told a national seminar on ‘Islam : Message of Peace Against Terrorism’ organised by the Islamic Council of India in Delhi on January 19. Ninety per cent of Musharraf’s speech, he said, related to Pakistan and the internal problems it faced due to theocracy and religious extremism. There was little for India or its concerns in it, he said. On the topic of the possibility of a war breaking out, Advani said a war was already on. A war that was being inflicted on India for the last 20 years. India’s response will be different from what it was before December 13, the Home Minister declared.

Meanwhile, it has been stated that Islamabad reportedly expressed its readiness to discuss the extradition of 14 non-Pakistanis figuring in New Delhi’s list of 20 criminals and terrorists, but insisted that India should reciprocate by extraditing wanted Pakistanis, specially those belonging to ethnic organisations from Karachi and currently hiding in India, who figure in a list prepared by Islamabad, The News daily has reported. The Pakistani pre-condition was conveyed to US Secretary of State Colin Powell when he was in Islamabad for talks a couple of days ago. Pakistan has officially stated that it would not hand over the Pakistani nationals figuring in the list of 20, but at the same time promised to prosecute them if India provided evidence. India has once again furnished more evidence about the men in the wanted list and got even Powell’s support on the issue.

Undeterred by indications that certain parties may not join the all-party delegations going abroad to convey India’s stand on terrorism, the Government is poised to unleash its diplomatic offensive to highlight Pakistan’s ‘active role’ in aiding and abetting terrorism. Although the date for the departure of the delegations has not been announced, the BJP said it could be within a couple of days.

“If certain parties have decided for their own reasons not to join the all-party delegation in our diplomatic offensive against terrorism, it is their business. It only strengthens our determination to highlight why Pakistani assertions (to fight terrorism) are deceptive and misleading,” indicated Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan. He said that in sharp contrast to the arguments of some opposition parties, the government was all set to explain to the international community that Islamabad’s avowed intentions of joining the ongoing global coalition against terrorism was dubious since Pakistan was fuelling it in Kashmir.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, said his party was pulling out of the all-party government delegation because Musharraf had taken a series of measures against terrorism. He added that if New Delhi sent teams abroad to highlight its point of view, the India-Pakistan tension would escalate further. However, Minister of State for Home Affairs I D Swami expressed surprise at Surjeet’s contention, and wondered how could India conveying its point of view against terrorism increase India-Pakistan tension?

Significantly, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had said that India would give time to Musharraf to act on the promises made in his speech on January 12. Many BJP leaders disagreed with the notion that Musharraf had been able to garner international support by his speech. Unless his words were translated into transparent deeds , the world will not really know whether he was sincere or deceptive, the BJP spokesman said.



VHP seeks ultimatum to Islamabad

The Vishva Hindu Parishad has demanded that the government serve an ultimatum on Islamabad to hand over the 20 terrorists wanted by it, failing which Pakistan should be declared an enemy country and appropriate action taken against it. Pakistan should be give an ultimatum of one or two months. If it does not hand over the terrorists by then, it should be declared an enemy country and the government should take appropriate action against it, demanded VHP Senior Vice-President Acharya Giriraj Kishore. He warned the government that “to trust Musharraf would be to dig one’s own grave.” He, however, welcomed Musharraf’s statement on the misuse of some madrasas and mosques in Pakistan. He said India should take a leaf out of it and any religious institution encouraging terrorism and anti-national activities should be shut down.

In an ominous sign on the eve of the assembly elections, the VHP has rejected Prime Minister Vajpayee’s appeal asking it not to raise sensitive issues like the Ayodhya temple dispute at a time when the nation is faced with a possibility of war with Pakistan. Kishore ruled out postponing the Ram temple construction and said their campaign would continue and the construction would begin in Ayodhya after the March 12 Shivratri deadline. “If the nation is facing a grave situation, let the Government postpone the Assembly elections. Otherwise, why should we sacrifice our movement if other important events can’t be postponed?” he asked.



Hurriyat told to distance itself from militants

Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah has demanded that the All Party Hurriyat Conference must distance itself from terrorists before participating in the forthcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. APHC leader Abbas Ansari had indicated that the organisation might participate in the assembly elections. In response to this offer, Abdullah said that the APHC leaders had started realising that they had to prove their representative character to the world.

“In the last few months, the APHC leaders had tried to meet envoys of various countries. But they never succeeded. They had to remain content with meeting a Third Secretary. These countries have told the APHC that they have to prove their representative character and that is why they are talking of participating in the election,” the minister pointed out. Abdullah agreed with intelligence experts that Pakistan had failed to arrest most of the terrorists operating in J&K. “I agree with the assessment that more then 5000 terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are still roaming freely. Pakistan must arrest all the terrorists belonging to these outfits and ensure that there is no infiltration from across the border into J&K,” he said. Asked if the Centre had taken note of the anti-Sikh posters appearing in the valley, Abdullah said the state administration had taken a serious view of the development.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the European Union met the government interlocutor on Kashmir, K C Pant, and indicated that the international community’s anxiety to find a solution to the Kashmir issue continued even as there was some de-escalation of tension between India and Pakistan. The British High Commissioner Sir Rob Young also met Pant following Prime Minister Tony Blair’s efforts to restore normalcy between New Delhi and Islamabad. Confirming the meeting, a government official stated that while New Delhi was willing to discuss the Kashmir issue with Islamabad, “Kashmir was, is and will continue to be an integral and inalienable part of India”. The Government said the EU’s position on Kashmir was nothing new. It has been holding consultations with India on the issue for a long time and was aware of India’s position. On January 12, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the EU, Josep Pique, spoke to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and the two discussed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s recent address . Pique had unequivocally condemned terrorism and expressed solidarity with India over the December 13 attack on Parliament. The EU is willing to mediate between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. However, while Islamabad has been clamouring for third-party intervention, New Delhi has rejected the proposal.

Marginalised for long and aware that this could be its opportunity to play a role in whatever political initiative is floated in the Valley, the Hurriyat Conference is trying to persuade the Muzaffarabad-based United Jehad Council-the 14-member umbrella organization for militant groups-to declare a ceasefire. Observers felt that this was an attempt to clear the hurdle that at present was stalling the Indo-Pak dialogue. Although the hardliners in the Hurriyat are against such a move, others argue that this is an ‘’appropriate’’ time especially because Musharraf, too, has said that Kashmir cannot be a pretext for terrorism.

The Hurriyat feels that the ceasefire call will put it in the ‘’camp fighting international terror.’’ And if the ceasefire works, New Delhi cannot keep raising the issue of violence and cross-border terrorism to stall substantive dialogue. More so when there’s international pressure on both sides to get to the table. The Hurriyat issued an ‘’appeal’’ to US Secretary of State Colin Powell saying that ‘’as long as the Kashmir dispute is not addressed, there’s no chance of peace in the subcontinent.’’ It also urged Powell to ‘’ensure the participation of Kashmiris in future India-Pakistan peace talks.’’

The Hurriyat is also planning to explore chairman Abdul Gani Bhat’s doctrine of splitting the seven-member executive into two groups-one that talks to New Delhi directly, the other to Islamabad. The Hurriyat is likely to convene an executive council meeting to discuss all issues including the ceasefire.

While it’s still too early to talk of a ‘’political process’’ in the Valley, a senior leader of the Hurriyat executive and Shia clergyman Abbas Ansari has said that the Hurriyat would contest the elections if it was guaranteed that there were ‘’free and fair’’ and were monitored by impartial observers. Hurriyat’s participation in elections, Ansari claimed, wasn’t to grab power but to show their representative character. ‘’Farooq Abdullah is claiming to be the representative of the people which he is not. We are saying that we are the representatives but New Delhi doesn’t recognise us. Let us have a fair exercise so that the real representatives are elected to resolve the Kashmir issue,’’ Ansari said.

Ansari’s statement comes at a time when there is increasing international focus on Kashmir with US Secretary of State Colin Powell urging both India and Pakistan to start talks, including on Kashmir. In Islamabad, Powell had referred to the ‘’wishes of the Kashmiri people,’’ a statement he diplomatically avoided in New Delhi.

When asked that Prime Minister Vajpayee had promised free and fair elections, Ansari said that what Vajpayee said wasn’t being implemented in the Valley. On the one hand, they talk of a political process but on the other, they arrest Hurriyat leaders. These elections have to be monitored by impartial observers since past elections were rigged by the authorities, he claimed.

Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat, however, reiterated that the separatist amalgam was ready to participate in elections if they were held under the supervision of the United Nations for a specific purpose: to choose the representatives of people of Jammu and Kashmir so that meaningful talks are initiated to resolve the Kashmir issue.



Islamic Council drive to fight terrorism

The Islamic Council of India has decided to launch a campaign against terrorism, chairman of the Council and the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation of India Qari Mohd Mian Mazhari has said. “Islam is not only the greatest saviour of human values but the biggest opponent of massacre, destruction and bloodshed. It is therefore not only the national but the religious duty of all Muslims to raise their voice against terrorism, unitedly,” Mazhari said. His views were endorsed by National Minorities Commission member, Shameem Kazim.

About the alleged misuse of some madrasas in the country, Mazhari said, “If there was any shred of evidence that any madrassas were being used for promoting anti-national activities like propagating jehad, training terrorist mind-sets, the Muslims of this country would themselves go and burn such madrasas.” The government must produce evidence against these madrasas, he said.

About intelligence reports that some madrasas, especially in the border regions, were being misused by militants, he said the government must immediately conduct an inquiry and take action. He also said he had communicated with Ulemas all over the world asking them to come together and ensure that madrasas all over the world are not misused for any alleged terrorist activity.



Shot Dutch men had assaulted BSF personnel

Investigations into the circumstances of the controversial killing of two Dutch nationals in Kashmir have so far revealed that they had assaulted the BSF personnel prompting them to retaliate, police stated. The two Dutch nationals had a criminal past but their link with any radical group had not yet been established. The two were killed by BSF men near the tourist area of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, sparking off a controversy following which an inquiry was ordered into the incident. The bodies of the two men were handed over to the Dutch Embassy.

Meanwhile, four militants and an alleged Army informer were killed, while two civilians were injured in militancy-related incidents in the Valley last week. Three of the militants were killed in operations in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district.

Hand-written posters on the walls of the Amira Kadal gurdwara asking Sikhs to leave the Valley surfaced , causing another law and order crisis for the Jammu and Kashmir government. A delegation of Sikhs met the Srinagar Deputy Commissioner (DC), and asked for appropriate security measures. More than 40 Sikhs have been killed in Anantnag and Srinagar districts since the inception of militancy in the state.

Tight security has been ordered in Srinagar following reports of possible militant attacks on Republic Day. The Jammu and Kashmir police which lost 128 of its personnel, has suffered the heaviest losses in terms of human life in the anti-militancy drive in the state, according to official sources. There was no let up in militant violence last year, which saw the death of 61 special police officers (SPOs) and 16 village defence committee (VDCs) members. Over the last 12 years, 568 policemen, 208 SPOs and 66 VDC members have laid down their lives fighting Pak-sponsored terrorism in the state, and the trend showed that the state police had made the greatest sacrifices.