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Kashmir : Three years of ceasefire

	November 27, 2006

November 25 marked the completion of three years of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. The two countries had for the first time in 56 years ordered a ceasefire on the night of Nov. 25, 2003. Observers say that villages on the border and Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir are humming with normal activity because of the ceasefire. The nearly 1126 kilometre long international border and the line of control have remained calm during the three years, except for stray incidents.



Doubts were initially expressed whether the ceasefire would hold or not. However, the barren lands on both sides, right up to the Point Zero on the border, have been turned green by the farmers.



Residents of the border villages, particularly in the Ranbirsinghpura, Bishnah and Akhnoor sectors, who had constantly lived under a shadow of bullets fired from the other side, are now leading a normal life. The ceasefire has also allowed them to solemnise marriages in their villages and organise social functions. Earlier, they had to move to safer places to marry their wards.



The world’s highest battlefield at Siachen has also been calm for the past three years.



The ceasefire has paved the way for implementation of the confidence- building measures (CBMs) to enable divided families meet. After the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road route, the Poonch-Rawlakot road at the Chakan-da-Bagh point has also been opened. This has benefited the divided families of Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu.



However, the two sides have yet to respond to the demand of the Ladakhis for reopening of the traditional routes to Gilgit, Skardu and Central Asia.





Seven securitymen killed



Though the situation on the international border and the line of control has been quiet, there is no end to terrorist strikes in the Kashmir valley. In the latest incidents, seven security personnel were killed in two incidents in the valley on Saturday, Nov. 25. Four Army personnel, including a Junior Commissioned Officer and a militant were killed in a gunfight at Neldora village in south Kashmir. In a separate incident at Bandipura, two armymen and a special police officer were killed and two others injured.



Defence spokesman A.K. Mathur said in Srinagar that Army personnel were killed in Neldora incident as the militants took advantage of the presence of civilians. “We observe restraint as we wanted to avoid collateral damage,” he said. In the Bandipura encounter, the security forces personnel were killed when militants hiding in a house shot them as they entered it to conduct searches.











Terrorist influx doubles : Chief Minister



Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has said terrorist infiltration from Pakistan this year (2006) is more than twice that of the previous year and this large influx could negate the peace process and the confidence-building exercise.



In an interview to The Tribune, Chandigarh, he said although there had been some decline in the attempt to smuggle in militants during the past two months, overall the number of infiltrators was exceptionally high. He urged Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to live up to the pledges he had been making to the world community on eschewing terrorism.



The Chief Minister regretted that the Hurriyat Conference had been keeping away from the political process and had even boycotted the working groups formed to discus the state’s constitutional and economic future. Yet, he would not like to close the door on the Hurriyat. It had some bright young faces who could play a great role in nation-building, he said.



Azad claimed that there had been a marked improvement in the human rights situation in the state under his stewardship, with custodial deaths and custodial disappearances being the lowest in 17 years. He also asserted that the accidental killings of civilians at the hands of security forces were at the lowest. Subsequently, complaints lodged by independent organisations with the National Human Rights Commission and the State HRC were also at the lowest in 17 years. Cases of alleged rape and molestation too were almost negligible. This was the biggest achievement of his first year in office, he claimed.





Kashmir crux : ‘Trust and take people forward’



Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and PDP’s erstwhile Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Beig have underlined the imperative need for decision makers at the Centre overcoming decades of “lack of trust” in the Kashmiris.



Both leaders insist that the basic challenge in finding a solution to the protracted Kashmir problem is to deal with the inherent mistrust.



“Trust can’t flow from Delhi alone. For the past 17 years, Jammu and Kashmir has been the crucible of death and destruction. The so-called mainstream or national parties have not been able to evolve a coherent nationalist policy,” maintained Beig at a discussion in New Delhi on Nov. 22 on a book titled “A J and K Primer” by veteran journalist and columnist B.G. Verghese.



Beig believed that the PDP, NC and the Congress could come out with a policy satisfying the wishes of the people of the state. “Be together and carry forward the people in confronting the vicious propaganda.”



Dwelling on the India-Pakistan and the Delhi-Srinagar dimensions, the PDP leader said it was the moral responsibility of the Indian state to strive to fulfil the yearning of the people of PoK for democracy, autonomy, self rule or whatever one might call it.



Beig made no bones in acknowledging that “there is Pakistan’s involvement in promoting militancy and terrorism. The question of building confidence and intra-regional trust must encompass all elements and ingredients of the problem. This is important for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf because the survival of the neighbouring country is at stake.”



Beig remained firm...”please learn to trust. The myth of Kashmir has to be destroyed and overcome. Similarly, the Hurriyat Conference is a great myth and a symbol of the problem. The conglomerate must take part in the democratic process through the process of engagement.”



The PDP leader emphasised that it was necessary to talk to Pakistan and the people of Kashmir who cannot be left out. “We have to address the insecurities of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan want peace. Through political innovation, we can triumph,” Beig added.



Dr. Abdullah reiterated that the major problem in solving the Kashmir imbroglio was the mistrust created by vested interests. Giving several instances of the mistrust created against Kashmiri leaders, including himself, Dr Abdullah said that Kashmir joined India because of the secular credentials of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. “The betrayal was not by Sheikh Abdullah but by the people in New Delhi.”



Dr. Abdullah said that the Hurriyat Conference can never be the main party.



The Prime Minister’s special envoy Shyam Saran pointed out that the Congress-led UPA government is extremely sensitive to what the leaders had brought to the fore. The effort has been to dovetail the policy on the state with the domestic one.



On the India-Pakistan dialogue, Saran said the Prime Minister has set clear parameters and declared he couldn’t alter the boundary nor abandon the people on the other side of Jammu and Kashmir. The effort has been to adopt a people-centric approach as opposed to a territory-centric approach.



As regards the cross-LoC interaction, the government has been talking about the entire state. This takes into its ambit the people of PoK as well as Gilgit and Baltistan.



Earlier, N.N. Vohra, Special Representative of the Union Government for the Jammu and Kashmir dialogue, said it was heartening that the Indo-Pak peace process had commenced.



The primer by Verghese helps revoke the vast ignorance about all aspects of the state problem. He noted that it was the Prime Minister’s belief that “we must enlarge and deepen the dialogue process and help the leaders in Jammu and Kashmir to point in the direction in which the resolution lies.”





Back-channel diplomacy working : Hurriyat



The chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has said that some announcements vis-a-vis Kashmir are expected in the next couple of months as back channel diplomacy between India and Pakistan is working vigorously. He was speaking in Srinagar on Saturday, Nov. 18 on his return from Cairo where he attended an international conference on Kashmir.



Quoting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Farooq said that for the first time in 58 years, India and Pakistan had exchanged papers. Behind the scene they were working and some major headway vis-a-vis Kashmir was expected, he added.



There was positive movement forward at the non-governmental level and “we are committed to making it a credible process.”



“We want to talk to New Delhi also and Pakistan as well. But New Delhi has to move forward and when we met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last time he assured us that efforts to improve the situation would be taken and we hope that it will be there.”



Talking about the proposals being discussed, he said, “These are akin to the `United States of Kashmir’ proposal mooted earlier.



“That is why we want to go to Pakistan and “Azad Kashmir” and want that Mujahideen leadership should be taken into confidence.” He said he was ready to facilitate involvement of militant leadership in talks.



The Mirwaiz reiterated that human rights violations and dialogue could not go together. “We have conveyed it to Delhi. They are also trying to minimise it and we hope that it will improve.” The Mirwaiz said that he did not agree on many points with the PDP.



“We do not agree on many issues: They talk about self governance within the ambit of the Indian Constitution. We say that it has to be outside the Indian or Pakistani constitutions and this is the fundamental difference but the quantum can be worked out. It is important that Islamabad, Delhi, Srinagar and Muzaffarabad relations have to be defined.”





Militants snatching children for use in terror operations



Reports have come in of militants forcing people living in remote areas to handover their children to be trained to become mujahids.



Ali Mohd, one of the 29 members of six migrant families who arrived in Jammu from Lancha village in Gool tehsil said on Tuesday, Nov. 21 that the militants burnt down their houses and threatened to slaughter them if they did not handover their children. Militants are seeking Gujjar children to turn them into terror machines, train them to become mujahideens.



Ali Mohd reached Jammu late on Sunday, Nov. 19, along with four brothers and their families.



“We are homeless and penniless. We want shelter and something to eat. Our children are starving, we have little to feed them with,” wails Noor Jan, wife of Ali.



Describing the poor state of affairs in remote villages, Ali’s elder brother Ismail said that last year, the militants pressured his brother Kala to handover his daughter Parveen Akhtar to them. Kala refused and fled along with his family. “Since then we are getting threatening calls from local militant commanders to bring her back to them or handover our own children to be trained as militants.”



Inspector General Jammu range SP Vaid admitting the local militants’ menace, said, they have been told to return home, promising special security pickets in their areas. But the hapless ‘refugees’ are too scared.





Ordinance to recover government land



An ordinance has been promulgated to recover about one lakh hectares of public land encroached upon by the land mafia in the state. The value of the land is put at about Rs. 25,000 crore. The ordinance provides that the lower courts will not have the jurisdiction to intervene in the process of retrieval of the encroached land. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the steps for the retrieval of the land and the drive against corruption were for the betterment of the people.





Bill to delete Art. 370 defeated



The Shiv Sena sought to move a Private Members’ Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Nov. 24 seeking the removal of Art. 370 of the Constitution that confers special status on Jammu and Kashmir. The moment former Lok Sabha Speaker and Shiv Sena Member Manohar Joshi sought leave of the House to introduce the Constitution Amendment Bill seeking the deletion of Art. 370, Congress members jumped up to scuttle the move. The Chair called for a voice vote to decide on the fate of the Bill. As the slogan shouting members of the Shiv Sena and BJP walked into the well of the House, the Bill was put to a voice vote and defeated.