M A I N   N E W S

Hurriyat team to get passports

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 (PTI) — The government today gave clearance for issuing of passports to four Hurriyat leaders following a request made by the amalgam leadership to travel to Pakistan, informed sources said here.

The sources said the impounded passports of Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat will be restored and a fresh passport issued to Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Yaseen Malik.

The move follows a request made by these leaders through unofficial intermediaries for release of travel documents for travelling to Pakistan and holding talks with the militant leadership there.

They said a decision to this effect was taken during a meeting of top officials of the Home Ministry last evening which also discussed the ongoing ceasefire in the state.

The sources said a fresh travel document would be issued to Mr Malik, who applied only in September this year.

They said travel documents of Shia leader Maulana Abbas Ansari, whose passport was impounded recently after his visit to Doha, and Mr Abdul Bani Lone, who had been issued a country-specific passport, would also be restored.

Travel documents of firebrand Jamaat-e-Islamia leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, which had been impounded after his separatist actions, has not been restored as he had not made any request for the same. Former Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has already a travel document.

The government decision follows the decision by the Hurriyat Conference to send delegations to Pakistan for holding talks with the militants there.

The Hurriyat executive on December 17 had unanimously decided to send a delegation on January 15 to initiate dialogue with the leadership of militants and other leaders there to carry forward the peace moves “initiated by India and Pakistan.”

About the proposed visit to Pakistan and its possible outcome, Hurriyat Chairman Bhat had said: “Hurriyat Conference has fairly and sufficiently expressed its willingness to travel to Pakistan not on a pleasure trip but to engage leaders of boys with guns. We will gleefully gear their throbbing heart and trust that they too will appreciate our anxiety to resolve the dispute through negotiations across the table and thus make sure that the peace process is not derailed.”

Hurriyat insiders said, “A consensus has been arrived on the names of Bhat, Farooq and Malik” for the Pakistan visit.

Pak told to check foreign ultras
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 — India asked Islamabad today to restrain foreign militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba from perpetrating violence, if Indo-Pak talks were to be resumed.

India also dismissed Pakistan’s claim that it had no control over such militant organisations, saying that “the entire world knows the truth.”

“After the extension of the ceasefire, Pakistan had said that they would control firing along the borders. After the ceasefire, cross-border infiltration and firing along the border had subsided but the Lashkar-e-Toiba continued to kill innocent people,” the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, said addressing CRPF personnel and jawans on the 61st Raising Day of the paramilitary force here today.

“Pakistan says we cannot do anything about the foreign militant outfits. But nobody can trust this statement,” he said.

“One month of ceasefire had gone and we decided to extend it to give peace another chance. I hope that the Pakistan Government and the militant outfits under its control will give a positive response to the offer,” Mr Advani said.

Describing the recent Red Fort incident as yet another attempt to create terror and sabotage the peace process, the Home Minister said: “If Islamabad wants, killings by these militant groups can end.”

Stating that Pakistan had lost an opportunity to create a conducive atmosphere when Mr Vajpayee embarked on the Lahore bus yatra last year by sending troops to Kargil, Mr Advani hoped that Pakistan would not lose another chance offered by India by way of a unilateral ceasefire.

The Home Minister further stated that Pakistan had started sending foreign mercenaries, including those of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, as the people of Jammu and Kashmir no longer sympathised with the local terrorists.

“A strong urge for peace and normalcy is felt in Jammu and Kashmir after 15 years and that is why the people of the state no longer sympathise with the terrorists. Realising this, Pakistan has stopped banking on the help of local support and has started infiltrating foreign mercenaries” he said.

About further extending of the ceasefire, Mr Advani said the government would review the situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the expiry of the ceasefire extension on January 26, 2001.

The Home Minister, however, made it clear that the ceasefire meant only that security forces would not initiate any combat operations. “The ceasefire does not mean that the security forces will not return fire when attacked,” Mr Advani added.

Lashkar man gives vital clues
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 — The Delhi police today claimed that the interrogation of the Lashkar-e-Toiba militant, Ashfaq Ahmed, had yielded vital information relating to alleged plans by the militant group to strike at different places, including important installations in the country.

Senior police officials said information has been passed on to Central intelligence agencies and different states, where Lashkar-e-Toiba, which was behind the Red Fort shootout, had planned to carry out strikes.

Discounting the apprehension expressed about the identity of Abu Shamal by residents of Batla House, a congested South Delhi colony, the police said it carried out the operation after checking the facts.

Six Lashkar militants armed with assault rifles like AK-56 attacked the Red Fort on Friday last. Two militants of the outfit opened fire, for the first time on an Army establishment in the capital killing three persons, including two jawans of the Rajputana Rifles.

The police said the interrogation of Ashfaq, the arrested Pakistani national, was continuing even as the Special Cell questioned the two acquaintances — Sajid and Mansoor Khan — of Abu Shamal.

The duo, detained by the police, were quizzed about the goings on in the Batla House hideout of Lashkar militants.

Sajid and Mansoor, whose absence since Tuesday had given rise to different kinds of rumours among the residents of the area. The police today released the two persons after thorough questioning. Their examination was vital, the police added.

Some angry residents of Jamia Nagar, where Batla House is located, had gheraoed the area police post on Wednesday alleging that the police had stage-managed the whole show and had carried out a fake encounter.

The situation in the colony remained tense today. However, there were no reports of any angry demonstration by the residents after the Id prayers.

The interrogation of Ashfaq, who was picked up from his in-laws house in Ghazipur in East Delhi on Monday night, continued with the police optimistic of getting more clues about the militant group’s nefarious operations in the country.

Substantiating its point, the police said so far nobody has come to claim the bullet-ridden body of Abu Shamal, kept in the AIIMS mortuary.