The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, December 31, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

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M A I N N E W S

Qureshi suits NDA gambit
From T.R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 30 — The stunning return of Mohammed Hashmi Qureshi to the land of his birth has added an entirely new dimension to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s peace initiative in troubled Jammu and Kashmir.

Qureshi is now a rabid Pakistan baiter and self proclaimed chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Party (JKDLP). To that extent he suits the National Democratic Alliance government’s gambit. His presence on Indian soil after nearly three decades and the prospects of his being associated in the peace process has caused an element of circumspection in the All Party Hurriyat Conference and some other political formations in J and K.

There is no doubt that Qureshi has been brought back by the trouble shooters actively involved in working out the modalities for sitting across the table in a bid to resolve the protracted Kashmir tangle.

It is anybody’s guess if Qureshi continues to enjoy the charisma of yore in the Valley as he was just a teenager when he and some others hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft to Lahore in 1971 and blew up the plane on the tarmac. That is what the various agencies involved in some frenzied behind-the-scenes activity in J and K would like to assess first hand.

Interestingly, in a volte face he maintains he is against an armed struggle and wants the Kashmiris on both sides to wage a non-violent struggle for independence. And what is important is that Qureshi’s homecoming is not a flash in the pan. It has been carefully planned and forms part of a complex jigsaw puzzle.

This development assumes significance as the Vajpayee government wants to involve the representatives of a wide cross section of people in J and K in working out the modalities for getting the peace process off the ground. How does Qureshi fit into this scheme of things remains to be seen.

At the same time the authorities here and in J and K appear to be in a quandary how to deal with the legal aspects in respect of Qureshi. The police from J and K arrived here yesterday armed with the 30-year-old yellowing First Information Report registered against him 30 years back.

Qureshi is expected to be taken to Srinagar on Monday for investigations.

The authorities have secured a transit remand for this purpose even as Qureshi is in judicial custody in the high security Tihar Jail in West Delhi. According to international conventions, a person cannot be tried a second time for a criminal act for which he has already served the sentence.

Even as legal experts are putting their heads together how to deal with the ticklish issue, an understanding has apparently been reached which paved the way for Qureshi’s return from Holland where he has been residing for the past 15 years after escaping from Pakistan. He had served a little over nine years in jail in Pakistan.

There are indications that Qureshi might be booked for trying to enter this country with improper documents and let off with minor penalty or imprisonment or both. Sources said that the 47-year-old Qureshi who founded the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) did not have a valid visa for entering this country.

Differences on team to Pak
We will not be dictated by Centre: APHC
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, Dec 30 — The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is not ready to accept the Central Government’s selection of the Hurriyat delegation that will be permitted to visit Pakistan for talks with militants and the government there.

The APHC, instead, would like to send the names of the delegation to the government for issuance of valid travel documents for visiting Pakistan. A former chairman of the APHC, Maulvi Umar Farooq, told TNS that the APHC executive committee would meet in Srinagar and decide on the names of those who would go to Pakistan. “We are not going to accept any dictation from the government,” he said, adding that the choice had to be left with “us”.

He said so far “we have not received any formal communication from the Centre about its plan of giving permission to our organisation leaders to visit Pakistan.” He said the APHC would not cooperate if the Centre indulged in pick-and-choose exercise while issuing travel documents.

The Kashmir Mirwaiz said if the Centre wanted the peace process to move ahead, it should either grant travel permission to all seven members of the executive committee or leave it to them to select a team.

He feared that by granting permission to three or four committee members, the government was trying to create dissensions in the APHC. “We will not break by these tactics. We are one and if the Centre thrusts its choice on us we will not go to Pakistan, Umar Farooq asserted.

Another senior APHC leader, Mr Abdul Gani Lone, said among the seven members of the committee only Maulvi Umar Farooq had a passport. He had received travel documents for visiting Pakistan in connection with the marriage of his son last month. The travel documents were valid up to the end of February.

Pressure to include Geelani
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 30 — Under pressure from across the borders, a meeting of the executive committee of the APHC scheduled for the coming week to decide and finalise the composition of its team for Pakistan, is going to be stormy with hardliners insisting on the name of Jammat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

In Islamabad’s calculations, New Delhi would never agree to give travel documents to Mr Geelani who has always supported Pakistan in the APHC. If New Delhi does not agree to give travel documents to him, then Islamabad would announce to the world that it was India which was opposed to the peace process.

Honour ceasefire, USA tells Pak

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (PTI) — The USA has urged both India and Pakistan to show military restraint and honour Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s ceasefire extension in Kashmir. The White House Press Secretary said President Clinton was not in touch personally with either party "but we have urged both sides to show restraint in that area and we have praised the Government of India for its move on the ceasefire." "The USA has urged both sides to honour the ceasefire and we think that should be a constructive way of moving forward and renewing dialogue in that region about how to lessen tension."

No tripartite talks, says Advani

NEW DELHI, Dec 30 (UNI) — Home Minister L.K. Advani today ruled out any possibility of the Line of Control ever being accepted as the international border and said India would always reject tripartite talks involving Pakistan and militants in Jammu and Kashmir.

In an interview on Star News, Mr Advani said tripartite talks ‘sort of’ amounted to conceding an independent entity for Kashmir. “We will talk to our people” in J and K or separately may even talk to Pakistan, but there is no question of tripartite talks.

He said the Indian Parliament had adopted a unanimous resolution some years ago on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir being part of India and there was no question of the government ‘casually departing’ from that stand.

About the ceasefire, he said it was expected that there would be difficulties and the results may not be visible immediately. But the intention of the announcement by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee that the security forces would not initiate any action against the militants was to send the message that there was a longing and earnest desire among the people — and even the militants — for peace.

Mr Advani said in answer to a question that it was futile talking to militants who refused to lay down arms. Referring to the Hizbul announcement some months ago about the ceasefire, he said it had not succeeded because Pakistan had not been clear on whether it wanted peace or not.

Describing Mr Vajpayee’s step as the second initiative (as he felt the first — the Lahore bus yatra — had failed), Mr Advani said the government had released members of the Hurriyat so that they could discuss the matter among themselves and then talk to the government. But they could not claim to be the sole representatives of the Kashmiri people.