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Kashmir : Terrorist attack at party rally kills five

	July 10, 2006

There is no end to terrorist attacks in the Kashmir Valley, and there are reports that infiltration from across the line of control is continuing unabated. In the latest incident, five persons were killed and 60 injured in a grenade attack on a National Conference rally in the Kulgam area of Anantnag district on Saturday, July 8. The rally was celebrating the grant of district status to Kulgam.



Among those killed was a former MLA, Ghulam Nabi Dar. A National Conference legislator, Sakina Ittoo, was among those injured in the incident.



There are reports that the rally had strayed away from the designated route and gone into areas where no security arrangement had been made. Dar was elected to the Assembly on NC ticket in 1977 and 1983 from Kulgam constituency. The condition of some of the injured is critical. Two policemen, a CRPF jawan, a Special Police Officer and two children are among the wounded. Kulgam SP Pani said Ittoo was not scheduled to visit the Damhal Hanjipora shrine. She was being escorted by a Deputy Superintendent of Police. He said the Road Opening Party had cleared the routes for Ittoo. But NC workers stopped her unexpectedly and took her to Astanpura.



Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah expressed his shock while NC president Omar Abdullah demanded a high-level probe into the attack. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said it was an act of cowardice. “Such attacks, particularly on women, are highly deplorable and indicate the extreme savageness of those elements who are behind the attacks.”





33 militants arrested, six terror modules busted in J&K



Busting overground modules of Lashker-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in Jammu and Kashmir, police uncovered six top terror networks and arrested 33 militants associated with them in the first six months of this year, top intelligence sources said on Sunday, July 9.



“As many as six terror modules of LeT and HM were busted till June this year in Jammu and Kashmir and 33 militants associated with them were arrested,” they said.





Infiltration unabated



Observers note that in the past couple of months, there have been a number of infiltration bids from across the line of control. The Centre is perturbed over the level of infiltration which is more than that of last year.



The recent spurt in terrorist attacks in the Valley indicates that many terrorists have infiltrated into Kashmir and those who are already there, have geared up their activities.



The Army Chief, General J.J. Singh told reporters in Teetwal that about 1500-1600 militants were operating in Jammu and Kashmir while infiltration from across the border and LoC continued unabated.



“There is no end to incursions. The militant infrastructure across the LoC is intact. But at the same time, we are determined to foil their every attempt to create disturbances in our side,” the Army Chief said.



Top Army officers are bothered about the infiltration from Poonch and Gurez valley. From Gurez, the Army had recently recovered a major cache of arms, ammunition, grenades, explosives and war-like stores.



“Their leadership is still intact, infrastructure still exists on ground and many terrorist camps are running in PoK and Pakistan,” said Army officers adding that the terrorists are lying low and waiting for the right opportunity to cross over to Kashmir.



“With regular inputs being received in the recent days regarding the terrorists getting desperate to undermine the ongoing peace process, the Army is carrying out aggressive patrolling and searches in the jungle and areas astride the LoC where the snow is melting fast,” said Brigadier Deependra Hooda who is commanding a strategic brigade in Uri, north Kashmir.



For the past two years, the Army has adopted a proactive approach towards infiltration. They have tried to block the loopholes and passes usually used by the militants. But militants are adopting a different strategy to sneak in and are choosing difficult areas at a higher altitude. The Machail operation in north Kashmir in which eight infiltrating ultras were killed was carried out at an altitude of 15,000 feet.



In other incidents, seven hardcore militants including a self-styled district command of the Al Badr were among the nine people killed in the state on July 2 in fierce gun battles. Four Pakistani infiltrators were killed in the Gulmarg area.



In a major success Police arrested Mansur Ahmed Wani, self-styled divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen for central Kashmir. He is the senior most Hizb operator apprehended in a decade.



Wani was held in an intelligence-led operation that also enabled the arrest of the Hizb district commander for Badgam, adjoining Srinagar, and four other senior operatives of Jammu and Kashmir’s numerically strongest terrorist group. Authorities said the terror cell was directly responsible for 12 murders in Badgam and Srinagar between March 2005 and May 2006.



Wani joined the Hizb in 2003, returning to India in 2005 to take charge as divisional commander.



In the meantime, there are reports that another militant organization, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has now started to fish for recruits among Srinagar’s urban poor, using cash as bait. It is drawing on the ranks of ill-educated and low-skilled Srinagar artisans and vendors, offering them cash in return for their participation in grenade attacks, assassinations and suicide attacks.



Non-political experts to head working groups



With the People’s Democratic Party and the National Conference unable to agree on nominees, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has appointed non-political experts to chair five working groups on Jammu and Kashmir.



CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami was among the politicians dismayed at the move. “While those appointed are individuals of eminence, it would have been appropriate for what is after all a political dialogue between the Union of India and Jammu and Kashmir [to] be conducted by the people’s representatives,” he argued.



However, National Conference president Omar Abdullah applauded the appointments. “When we discussed the composition of the working groups with the Chief Minister, we asked for them to be headed by people divorced from State politics. We wanted people who would come to the issues without preconceived ideas or a political agenda of their own. This is a step in the right direction,” he said.



Acting on the authority delegated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Azad announced the appointment of chairpersons to head the working groups. Dr. Singh announced the creation of the groups at the end of the second round-table conference in Jammu and Kashmir last month.



Former Chief Justice A.M. Ahmadi will chair the critical working group, which will deliberate constitutional issues. The former foreign service officer M.K. Rasgotra, the former Reserve Bank Governor C. Rangarajan and National Minorities Commission Chairman M.H. Ansari will respectively lead discussions on easing cross-border movements, economic development and rehabilitation of victims of conflict.



A senior official noted that the chairpersons of the groups were neither authorised to negotiate on behalf of the Union Government nor represent Jammu and Kashmir’s politicians in New Delhi. “Their role is to act as good-faith arbitrators between the major political parties. Since the PDP and the National Conference were unable to agree on nominees from the State, the appointment of outsiders became inevitable.”





Eight new districts created



The Ghulam Nabi Azad Government has created eight new districts in the State. Kashmir and Jammu divisions will get four new districts each. The Chief Minister said the decision has been taken for equitable development of all the three regions of the state.