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India-Pakistan

Home beckons

2007-07-10

FOR most of the afternoon, soldiers at the Nanak Post at Uri in Baramulla district had stared out through the mist at four brightly coloured specks winding their way towards the Line of Control (LoC). At first sight, it seemed as though a group of militants was crossing over and, as such, preparations to ambush them were put in place. But soon it became clear that there was something unusual about the spectacle. One of the members of the group was a woman with two crying infants in her arms; and the man beside her was urging two exhausted children to take the last steps to complete the savage climb into India. "My name is Nasir Ahmad Pathan, and I want to come home," the bedraggled man shouted when he finally reached the rolls of barbed wire that mark Jammu and Kashmir's border with Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). At least 138 residents of the State have returned from across the LoC since the Great Kashmir Earthquake of October 2005 - five of them with the families they built during their stay in Pakistan. Most of them had left to train at camps run by Islamist terror groups; others were among the estimated 35,000 refugees who fled the State fearing war and ethnic cleansing following the jehad of 1989. In 2002, though, the world began to change. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda bombing in New York and Washington D.C., the world woke up to the threat posed by Islamist terror groups operating out of Pakistan. Soon after, India and Pakistan almost went to war - and Islamabad came under intense pressure to scale back support to its secret armies in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) started squeezing funding to militant groups, and the jehad in the State began to disintegrate. Hundreds of men are thought to be waiting in jehad camps for a chance to return to their old lives. Thousands of refugees, too, believe the time has come to resume their war-interrupted lives and build a new future. But the road back home is proving both long and perilous. Pathan was a sixth-grade student when he began his journey from the impoverished mountain hamlet of Sultan Dhakki to Pakistan. His brothers Javed and Mubassir were to join the Indian Army; Pathan, however, turned to the jehad in search of adventure, self-esteem and a living. One summer evening in 1989, Pathan traversed the minefields along the LoC with the help of a Hizbul Mujahideen recruiter. By that evening, he was on a truck to a training camp near Muzaffarabad. But unlike thousands of other recruits, Pathan's stay in the training camp was brief. His father Saifuddin Pathan contacted relatives in Pakistan and sought help. Within six days, Pathan's relatives pulled him out of the camp. Since there was no way of returning to his family, Pathan began living with his Lahore-based uncle, Mohammad Mamoon Khan. He trained as a driver and later purchased a mini-bus. Soon Pathan had saved enough to own a small plot of land in Rasoolpura. In 1994, he married a Pakistani national, Naseema Akhtar. The couple had four children - Uzma, who is now 12, Umar (10), Ishrat (six), and Aqib (four). Pathan had built the life he had always wanted. Which side of the border had been the site for the dream to come true seemed to matter little. No one is certain just what provoked Pathan to leave his apparently picture-perfect life. "My father had visited us just before the earthquake and begged me to come home. My wife and I felt obliged to respect his wishes. After my father passed away, we decided that we had to make the passage to India, even if it meant risking our lives," Pathan said. Police records dispute this account. The police believe Pathan had long worked for the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front, a feared militant group responsible for a series of murderous urban bombings between 1995 and 1998. According to the police version of the events, Pathan was coerced to resume offensive tasks on the Indian side of the LoC - and used the opportunity provided by the earthquake to break free of his handlers, and escape. Like Pathan, Sopore resident Abdul Hamid Rather was among the hundreds of young people who crossed the border in the first months of the Jammu and Kashmir jehad. He makes no secret of his motives for returning home. In 1990, Rather crossed the LoC as part of a group of 135 young men from Sopore. After three months of combat training, he returned to serve with a Hizbul Mujahideen combat unit in the Sopore area. Abdul Rather claims to have been disgusted by what he saw. "Most of our leaders were from the Jamaat-e-Islami," he says, "and their main interest was in killing leaders of the National Conference and the Congress. They did not want freedom; they wanted power and wealth." In 1992, Rather lost a brother who had sought to follow in his footsteps - he was shot by Indian troops before he could make it across the LoC. "I had got my own brother killed," he says bitterly, "and I had to ask the question: for what? The answer was loud and clear: for nothing." Rather returned to POK in 1994, and began the precarious life of a refugee. His wife Reshma soon joined him along with their sons Khalid Hamid and Irfan Hamid. The family survived on a dole of Indian Rs.3,500 a month, made up of assistance both from the provincial government of POK and the Hizbul Mujahideen. Life, however, was hard, and Rather began searching for a way out. In 2000, he joined supporters of the pro-peace Hizbul Mujahideen dissident Abdul Majid Dar. "We were sending men to death each day," he said, "for a cause we knew was lost. We wanted peace." When Dar's peace effort was opposed by the Hizbul Mujahideen command, Rather was among those who rebelled. Supporters of the dissident commanders exchanged fire with their one-time comrades on at least two occasions. Peace returned after the dissidents were given a camp of their own. But without official patronage and funding, their future was tenuous. In 2004, Rather's father Ghulam Ahmad Rather travelled on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus, bearing an offer that held out new hope: If Rather wished to return home the police were willing to facilitate his rehabilitation. Using contacts in Muzaffarabad, Rather succeeded in obtaining Pakistani passports for himself and his family. A travel agent arranged for tickets on the Lahore-New Delhi bus service, along with Indian visas to visit non-existent relatives in Kolkata and New Delhi. "It cost me some Rs.25,000 in bribes to get the travel documents, but I wasn't willing to risk the lives of my family crossing the Line of Control," Rather recalls. Released on June 21 after six weeks in jail, Rather hopes to help his father operate the family's three grocery stores and chicken farm. Many of those who have returned have similar dreams for their new lives. Manzoor Ahmad Awan left the mountain hamlet of Kundi Barzala for Muzaffarabad in 1989 when he was just 10 years old. His father Zafar Khan had decided to leave India, fearing that the jehad in the State would lead to war or a pogrom against residents of hamlets close to the LoC. Soon after Khan died. Awan continued to live with relatives in Muzaffarabad. He married a Muzaffarabad resident, Asfat Mir, in 1999, and the couple had three children. Interestingly, Asfat Mir's family had been residents of Kundi Barzala until 1947; her father Amiruddin Mir fled the region in the midst of the first India-Pakistan war. Although Awan was entitled to a refugee's dole, he could only make ends meet by doing odd-jobs on construction projects and roads. It was, he felt, a humiliation. "We have a few acres of land," he says, "and I knew my family would have a much better life there. It was, however, just too dangerous to risk the journey home." After the earthquake, however, there were no job options for Awan in Muzaffarabad. Facing starvation, Awan and his family decided to risk crossing the mountains. Munir Ahmad was born to the Awans in March: an event that is tempting to read as a metaphor for hope and healing. Reality, though, is rarely poetic. As India maintains that Pakistan-controlled Jammu and Kashmir is part of the Republic of India, Asfat Mir is not a foreigner. However, her crossing of the LoC, like that of her husband's, is an offence under the Egress and Movement Control Act. She, like all of those who have returned, face prosecution, and possible prison sentences. While a wide spectrum of politicians in the State have been calling for the Act to be waived and an amnesty to be put in place, officials note that the jehadists who have returned pose genuine security concerns. In May, the police arrested Hajan resident Riyaz Ahmad Rather, who surrendered to Indian troops on the LoC in March, for his alleged role in a plot to assassinate Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Riyaz Ahmad, the police claim, had hoped to use his credentials as a Hizbul Mujahideen dissident to penetrate a Congress rally in Bandipora and plant an explosive device. Yet, there is little doubt that the ranks of the home comers are set to swell. Increasingly, relatives of militants who are still in camps are using the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service to persuade their loved ones to return home; hundreds of families have contacted the Military Intelligence Directorate to secure safe passage for their kin across the LoC. Some have chosen not to wait, and, on occasion, with tragic consequences. On June 23, for example, troops shot dead Hizbul Mujahideen operatives Irfan Ahmad Ganai, Fayyaz Ahmad Bhat and Javed Ahmad Khan, when they were attempting to cross the LoC near Uri. Mohammad Siddiq Ganai, Irfan Ganai's father, says the three began planning their escape from the training camp last year after hearing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer of rehabilitation to all those who returned to India. Plans for their attempted crossing were finalised when Mohammad Siddiq Ganai visited Muzaffarabad last year - but errors in communication, as well as the inevitable risks involved in border crossing, meant that their hopes of a new life were shattered in blood. The Jammu and Kashmir government needs to find ways to make the journey safe - not just for those who seek to return, but also for those who live in the State. For all the passionate polemic their problems have provoked, there has been little serious discussion on just how this might be achieved.

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India-Pakistan

United Jihad Council attacks Musharraf peace offer

2006-12-07

A coalition of terrorist groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir has lashed out at President Pervez Musharraf's new offer for a resolution of the India-Pakistan dispute over the State, describing his four-point charter as a "unilateral concession." "Kashmiris cannot compromise on their right to self-determination," a spokesperson for the Pakistan-based United Jihad Council said in a press release faxed to newspaper offices in Srinagar late on Tuesday. Referring to Gen. Musharraf's suggestion that India-Pakistan supervise the autonomous or self-governed states of Jammu and Kashmir that would be created if his proposals are accepted, the UJC said that "options like joint control can only be acceptable if they are a stepping stone for the right to self-determination." UJC leaders have become increasingly critical of India-Pakistan dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir in recent months. "Freedom is our goal," Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief Mohammad Yusuf Shah in an October 30 interview, "and we will not accept anything under the Indian Constitution." He described plans for self-rule — a formulation that figures in General Musharraf's new proposals — as "a document of slavery." Earlier, in May, the UJC had lamented what it described as the Pakistan Government's "weak and apologetic" policies on Jammu and Kashmir, as well as the "pointless moderation" of secessionist politicians. "Some so-called moderates are playing political showmen," the UJC had said, "and keep knocking at New Delhi door. They are part of Indian cunningness." Such hostile polemic, Indian security analysts believe, is an attempt to drive the best bargain possible in hard times "General Musharraf is under intense pressure from the United States of America to dismantle jihadi groups," a senior intelligence official told The Hindu. "He hopes to secure a quick political settlement on Jammu and Kashmir," the officer argued, "and then use it to compel the jihadis to shut shop." Elements of the jihadi leadership appear to understand the new reality, and are seeking a political role. In one recent interview, the Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief dropped several preconditions for initiating a ceasefire, and appeared to suggest that he would be willing to consider joining the dialogue process. However, under intense pressure from his UJC partners, Mr. Shah soon resiled on this offer. Interestingly, the political divisions in the Hizb ul-Mujahideen command on dialogue have manifested themselves down the terror group's command structure. Hizb leaders have, for example, been unable to decide on the competing claims of hawks and doves to succeed the recently-killed southern Kashmir divisional commander Mohammad Ashraf Shah — a key go-between for the Hizb ul-Mujahideen and the People's Democratic Party. Javed ''Seepan'' Sheikh, an Anantnag-based policeman-turned-terrorist who strongly favours dialogue, and Pulwama district commander Parvez Dar, a hardliner who favours escalating violence, had both put in claims to lead the Hizb ul-Mujahideen's largest unit. Until a second meeting to be held later this month to decide these competing claims, Tral-based district commander Hanif Khan has been appointed acting divisional commander. Frictions between the UJC and their patrons in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate have been evident since March, when 18 top jihad commanders staged an unprecedented public protest in Muzaffarabad. The protests followed the ISI's decision to terminate monthly subsidies ranging from Rs. 3,000,000 to Rs. 400,000 to Islamist terror groups operating against India. Hizb ul-Mujahideen supreme commander Mohammad Yusuf Shah, who operates under the nom de guerre Syed Salahuddin, is leading the protests, along with Lashkar-e-Taiba's Mohammad Zaki ur-Rahman, the Jaish-e-Mohammad's Abdul Rahman, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's Maulana Farooq Kashmiri, al-Umar's Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front's Bilal Ahmad Beig and al-Badr's Bakht Zamin Khan. Speaking to The Hindu during the protests, UJC spokesperson Mohammad Kalimullah said the protesters wanted Gen. Musharraf to reverse policies that "dishonoured a war in which one hundred thousand Kashmiris have sacrificed their lives." "Until he announces that Pakistan's moral and political support for the mujahideen in Kashmir will continue," Mr. Kalimullah said, "our leaders will remain on hunger strike. We will not back down." Warnings from the ISI, though, led the protestors to call off the protests. Although terrorist groups continued to mount large-scale offensive operations against India, the protests failed to secure them additional funds and weapons. An investigation by Pakistan's prestigious Herald magazine, which was published in August, said there was a mood of "lethargy and disorientation" at jihadi training camps.

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India-Pakistan

Hizb ul-Mujahideen, LeT leaders stage hunger strike

2006-03-14

Eighteen top jihadi commanders are staging a hunger strike in Muzaffarabad against "the betrayal of the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir by President Pervez Musharraf," a Hizbul- Mujahideen spokesperson told The Hindu on Sunday. Mohammad Kalimullah, a Muzaffarabad-based spokesperson for the militant group, was responding to reports that at least eight leaders of Pakistanbased groups had been arrested, even as leaders of political organisations from both sides of the Line of Control met at a conference organised by the international science organisation, Pugwash. Organised by the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based platform for all major groups operating against India, the hunger strike marks the first instance where the jihadi leadership has staged a protest against Pakistan. Interestingly, Pakistanbased groups such as the Lashkar- e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which were distant from the UJC, have also joined the protests. Hizb supreme commander Mohammad Yusuf Shah, who operates under the nom de guerreSyed Salahuddin, is leading the protests along with LeT's Mohammad Zaki-ur-Rahman, JeM's Abdul Rahman, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's Maulana Farooq Kashmiri, the Al-Umar's Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front's Bilal Ahmad Beig and the Al-Badr's Bakht Zamin Khan. Kalimullah said the UJC commanders were demanding that General Musharraf reverse policies that "dishonoured a war in which 100,000 Kashmiris have sacrificed their lives." "Until he announces that Pakistan's moral and political support for the mujahideen in Kashmir will continue," he said, "our leaders will remain on hunger strike. We will not back down." The UJC leaders, the Hizb spokesperson said, had written to General Musharraf 10 days ago, warning that they would stage protests unless he reversed course on Jammu and Kashmir. However, no response was received. "Some people from the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Government have visited us to seek an end to the protests," Kalimullah said, "but we will negotiate only with the President of Pakistan himself." Newspapers in both India and Pakistan earlier reported that senior UJC members had been arrested because of the threat they posed to politicians from Jammu and Kashmir, who are attending the Pugwash conference. Kalimullah, though, said the reports were untrue. "We regard the people who have come from Jammu and Kashmir as traitors," he said, "but they are guests of Pakistan, and we do not intend to embarrass our hosts. Informed sources in Islamabad told The Hindu that while no formal arrest orders had been issued against the UJC leaders, their protest was being conducted in an Inter-Services Intelligence- run safe house in Muzaffarabad. They were not legally under detention, the sources said, but had been denied access to communication services. The Hizb website has not been updated since March 7. Military officials in New Delhi said there was no evidence of a Pakistan crackdown against terror groups. "Communications traffic between jihadi groups in Jammu and Kashmir and their control stations in Pakistan is at its usual levels," said a senior officer, adding that at least one fire engagement between Hizb terrorists and Indian forces had taken place since Saturday.

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Terror Networks

Jihadi intimidation campaign against Kashmir assembly elections

2002-03-25

Al-Jehad has resurfaced in Kashmir valley warning people not to take part in assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The outfit, in a statement published by some local Urdu dailies, today said "We have not rendered sacrifices for power, but our struggle is based on the goal of freedom." Without naming anybody, the statement warned secessionist leaders engaged in making ways to participate in the assembly elections to keep away or get ready for the consequences. Al-Jehad was one of the front-ranking militant outfits in the Valley in early 90s and disappeared after the arrest and killing of its leadership and hundreds of cadres. Al-Jehad’s leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who later joined Hurriyat and became its executive member, is presently undergoing detention under Public Safety Act after arrest last year. Al-Jehad is the second militant outfit which warned Hurriyat leaders not to participate in the assembly polls. Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKLF) warned Hurriyat leadeship of "serious consequences" if they participate in elections, while another militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen asked the state government employees to stay away from the poll process. "If any Hurriyat leader including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Democratic Freedom Party leader Shabir Ahmad Shah are found involved in any (election) activity, it would attract serious consequences," JKIF had said.

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