M A I N   N E W S

Hurriyat welcomes ceasefire offer
Willing to hold negotiations

SRINAGAR, Nov 21 (PTI) — All-Party Hurriyat Conference today described the declaration of Ramzan month ceasefire by the Centre as a “positive change” in the government’s policy towards Kashmir and said it was willing to participate in any meaningful and result-oriented political process aimed at resolving the vexed issue.

The ceasefire announcement by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday “is an indicator of a positive change” in the policy of his government towards Kashmir, Hurriyat said in a statement after a three-hour long meeting of its executive committee, the separatist conglomerate’s highest decision-making body.

The statement said Hurriyat was willing to hold talks with the governments of India and Pakistan as also the leadership of militant groups “so that the ceasefire could be translated into a meaningful and result-oriented move.”

Insisting that the Kashmir issue was not an internal matter of India, the statement said Hurriyat considers the resolution of “Kashmir dispute” through dialogue between the parties concerned as a guarantee for peace in South Asia.

“Unless all attention is paid towards resolving the Kashmir issue on a permanent basis, peace cannot be restored (in the state),” the APHC said.

USA hopes for dialogue

WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (PTI) — The USA yesterday welcomed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s announcement of the Ramzan ceasefire in Kashmir and hoped that it would lead to the opening of the process of a dialogue.

The State Department while welcoming the unilateral ceasefire said: “We remain convinced that the Kashmir issue, if it is to be resolved, needs a dialogue to bring about a lasting settlement but we are not calling for any particular structure for it.”

Officials made it clear that the support for a dialogue does not mean that the department favours a tripartite dialogue involving India, Pakistan and the militants.

The officials reiterated adherence to the four R’s — restraint, respect for the Line of Control, rejection of violence, and renewal of dialogue (for reconciliation) — President Clinton had referred to during his visit to South Asia to resolve Kashmir issue.

Ulemas hail ceasefire offer

NEW DELHI, Nov 21 (UNI) — The Islamic Council of India and the Ladakh Buddhist Association have welcomed the unilateral declaration of ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir by the Prime Minister during the holy month of Ramzan and appealed to all organisations in the state to reciprocate the constructive decision.

“The historic decision proves that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is fully committed to maintaining the unity and integrity of the country on the one hand and trying to defeat those foreign powers, on the other, who by coupling the terrorism with Islam, are conspiring to create an atmosphere of communalism, which is bound to be disastrous for the unity and integrity of the nation,” the council said in a joint statement issued here today.

The Ulemas, Mashaikhs and Sajjadgan appealed to the people of Kashmir to realise their responsibilities and ensure that no hostility takes place during the month of Ramzan.

Give peace a chance: Al-Badr founder
From T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 21 — The founder of Al Badr Firdous, Baba Syed, who renounced terrorism in 1996-97 realising the futility of talking through the gun, has urged the Kashmiri leadership not to reject the new peace initiative outlined by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Mr Syed, who is a National Conference member of the legislative council in Jammu and Kashmir, in a fervent appeal to “Give Peace A Chance,” said “not only must the APHC accept Mr Vajpayee’s offer but call upon on all militant organisations to reciprocate.”

“Only then,” he observed, “will politics in Kashmir move beyond the gun and opportunism. The people of Kashmir have shown a lot of patience and will be watching carefully. Neither they nor history will forgive those who once again betray the cause of peace. We must all give peace a chance,” he pleaded.

Mr Syed’s carefully worded statement close on the heels of the announcement of a unilateral ceasefire in J and K during the holy and fasting month of Ramzan made by the Prime Minister on Sunday assumes significance.

He said Kashmiris generally acknowledge that “if a solution to Kashmir issue can be found at all, it can only be done while he (Mr Vajpayee) is the Prime Minister. The ball is clearly in the court of the Kashmiri leadership.”

Noting that there can be no occasion better than Ramzan to begin a new initiative for peace in Kashmir, Mr Syed stressed “only those who are against peace and the spirit of brotherhood and humanity as enunciated in Islam will reject the announcement of the ceasefire by the Prime Minister.”

He said after 12 years of misery in which thousands of Kashmiris have been killed and Kashmiri civil society brutalised, “it is time that we all begin a new era of peace. There have been flickers of hope in the past.”

Recalling that in 1994 Yasin Malik declared a ceasefire and it had some effect on the situation but militancy had still not lost its legitimacy. In 1966 “some of us who were in the forefront of the movement recognised that the gun had outlived its utility and it was time for a dialogue.”

Mr Syed described Mr Vajpayee’s initiative as a catalyst for the restoration of the democratic process in J and K. More significantly earlier this year, the Hizbul Mujahideen announced a unilateral ceasefire but this was hijacked by vested interests in the Valley as well as across the border.

He said: “The present announcement of ceasefire is significant for a variety of reasons. It seems to be part of a fresh thinking in New Delhi which stems from Prime Minister’s call in Srinagar to address the problems of Kashmir within the framework of Insaniyat (humanity). The visas given to Hurriyat leaders to attend the recent OIC conference in Doha and to Abdul Ghani Lone and his family to attend the marriage of his son also seem to be initiatives rooted in the same spirit,” Mr Syed added.

Al-Badr vows Ramzan attacks

ISLAMABAD, Nov 21 (Reuters) — Al-Badr, a Pakistan-based militant group, today vowed to step up attacks in Kashmir during Ramzan to mocking the ceasefire offer by New Delhi.

Bakhat Zamin, chief of Al-Badr, told Reuters Television that he was launching a new offensive against Indian troops because the ceasefire offer was merely a ploy to undermine the unity of militant groups.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday offered a ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, which begins at the end of November.

But the militants have rejected the ceasefire offer, terming it “mere eye-wash” to win international sympathy.

“What is Ramzan to them. They (India) are a secular government, What difference does it make to them that it is Ramzan or not,” Zamin said, adding that Islam did not ban fighting during the fasting month.

Al Badr, set up in 1979 in Afghanistan to fight Soviet occupation forces, turned to the Kashmir dispute in 1988. It says more than 650 of its fighters have been killed in separatist violence in Kashmir in the past 11 years.

Zamin said the ceasefire offer by India reflected New Delhi’s growing weakness in the face of a united struggle by the Mujahideen.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has responded coolly to New Delhi’s offer of a temporary ceasefire in Kashmir.

“Ceasefire is no solution to the Kashmir problem,” state-run television quoted Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar as saying.

Mr Sattar’s comments came after three hard-line Muslim militant groups rejected the offer.

The reaction from ranking Kashmiri political parties to the offer was muted. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a former Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella organisation of political parties and militant groups in Kashmir, said the temporary ceasefire was no solution to the Kashmir issue.

“New Delhi should adopt a more realistic approach to resolve the Kashmir issue. Just announcing a ceasefire during the month of Ramjan is no solution,” he said.

The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), a militant outfit dominated by Afghan and Pakistani mercenaries, today threatened to launch massive attacks on Indian Army camps during the holy month of Ramzan irrespective of the ceasefire declared by New Delhi, media report said here.

The daily, “Dawn”, quoted HuM secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil as saying that “we will launch massive attacks on the Indian Army during Ramzan, particularly on its 17th day when the battle of Badr was fought.”

The battle of Badr was the first battle of Islamic state against the “infidels” of Arabia.

In a rebuff to the section of people, who want the Kashmir issue to be solved by negotiations, Khalil claimed “those who talk of settling the issue through negotiations are pushing Kashmiris towards indefinite slavery.”

However, India has clarified that the security forces would not retaliate unless provoked.