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| Monday, June 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Geelani
flays anti-India slogans Include
PoK issue in talks: minister PoK area
residents demand Balawaristan Expulsions:
revolt in J & K Cong |
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Strengthen
PM’s hands, Shah urges people Pilgrim
rush to Vaishnodevi
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Geelani flays anti-India slogans New Delhi, June 10 “Our struggle is not based on any enmity against India, not on account of it being a Hindu-majority state but merely because India reneged on its promise to us that we would be allowed to decide our own future,” he said. “I have repeatedly criticised groups which spread hatred against India. I have asked jehadi groups not to resort to emotional slogans such as ‘crush India’ as they are neither realistic nor do they reflect the spirit of Islam,” Mr Geelani, known to be a hardliner, said in an interview to a Karachi-based magazine “Newsline”. “We want India and its people to prosper and to do justice to the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. Mr Geelani said he “often asked the Mujahideen (militants) to remember that their goal is the setting up of an Islamic state and social order where peace, justice and equality prevail for all, irrespective of religion.” Asked about the question mark on the Hurriyat being the “sole representative” body of the Kashmiris, the pro-Pakistan Jamaat leader said: “We are ready to be tested. But let India first declare Kashmir a ‘disputed territory’. This would be a beginning towards the resolution of the problem.” Mr Geelani, a staunch supporter of merger of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, also said if people of the state favoured to remain with India, he would “go by that verdict. At least give them a chance to decide,” he added. On the Centre’s offer of talks, the Hurriyat Executive council member said the conglomerate of 23 separatist organisations had rejected it as “it (government) is not ready for any meaningful negotiations.” “Whenever, it speaks of dialogue, it is with an aim to hoodwink countrymen and world opinion. It wants to talk only to conclude an agreement within the Indian Constitution,” he said. Mr Geelani said the attitude of Pakistan’s military regime was “very positive” and “realistic” but added that during the past 50 years, “the weak policies and parasitic character of successive Pakistani governments have reduced the Kashmir issue from an international one to a border dispute.” The hardline Jamaat leader also criticised the Taliban regime of Afghanistan for imposing restrictions on women. “I seriously differ with them
(Taliban) on the issue of women’s education,” he said, adding that “whether you educate your sons or not, I believe it is necessary to educate your daughters and sisters to build a healthy society.”
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Include
PoK issue in talks: minister Jammu, June 10 “PoK people have aspirations and want freedom from Pakistan. Therefore, issue should be included in the talks,” Mr Nengroo said here. On the Musharraf-Vajpayee talks, he said: “This is not new and such talks have been held earlier also.” “These talks should come out with some solid solution or near to it and that alone will bring peace in Kashmir,” the Food and Supplies Minister said. Time had now come to end hostilities between the two countries by settling the long-pending issue of Kashmir, he said, adding all energies, now concentrated on tackling militancy, should be focused on development, peace and prosperity. Referring to General Musharraf’s tirade against clerics in his country, Mr Nengroo said: “This shows a good start for peace talks. These steps will go a long way in settling issues.”
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PoK area
residents demand Balawaristan New Delhi The most chilling deed of the Pakistan General Staff was the perfidious employment of the hardy men of the Northern Light Infantry
(NLI) as cannon fodder in the Kargil conflict. Shortly before launching the ill-fated intrusions, the Pakistani army with drew battalions from the Punjab,
Baluch, Sindh and Frontier Force regiments from the LoC opposite Kargil district and replaced them with NLI battalions from the Northern Areas. This treachery was practiced to ensure that most of the casualties which occurred during the Operation Badr would be of soldiers who belong to the
Gilgit, Baltistan, Ghizer, Hunza and Nagar areas. The aim was to ensure that no body bags would arrive from the front in major Pakistani cities like Lahore,
Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta in full glare of the media so that a public uproar could be avoided in the event things went wrong. Because of their place of origin, the NLI soldiers were considered expendable. Not only were the NLI soldiers used as cannon fodder, even the bodies of their dead comrades were moved at night to avoid publicity and they were not given ceremonial military funerals. A local leader told The Herald, “The authorities dumped our martyrs at our doors like logs of wood; they were mostly buried in the same civilian clothes in which they had left for the front line.” Residents of the Northern Areas also claim that the wounded NLI soldiers were not provided with adequate medical attention. According to The Herald, “The anger of the people spilled into the streets of Hunza where activists of the Karakoram National Movement... openly raised slogans against the manner in which the Kargil operation was being handled. Trouble broke out in Skardu too when
Al-Badr mercenaries forcibly tried to occupy a house to set up their office. “The militants had to be ordered out of Skardu to appease
the infuriated population.” This was not the first time that the people of the Northern Areas had been discriminated against. The Gilgit Agency and
Baltistan, that now comprise the Northern Areas, were part of J&K at the time of partition. The woes of the people of the Northern Areas began on November 4, 1947, soon after the state of J&K acceded to India in terms of the Independence of India Act. A young British Major who was commanding the Gilgit Scouts overstepped his authority and illegally declared the accession of the Northern Areas to Pakistan. It shall remain one of the quirks of history that a Major of the British Raj could violate good order and military discipline and seal the fate of the people of an area almost as large as England. Since then, the people of the Northern Areas have been denied all fundamental and political rights just like the Kashmiris in the rest of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
(PoK). They have been governed with an iron hand by a Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas nominated from Islamabad and supported by the Pakistan army. The judiciary exists only in name and civil administration is virtually non-existent, with the result that almost no development has taken place and the people live poverty-stricken lives without even a semblance of health care and with only primitive educational facilities based primarily on madrasas run by Islamist fundamentalist. Consequently, there have been frequent riots and uprisings. The most violent political outbursts took place in 1971, 1988 and 1997. In fact, it was General
Musharraf, then a Brigadier commanding the Special Service Group (SSG) commandos, who had been handpicked to put down a Shia uprising in Gilgit in 1988. He let loose Wahabi Pakhtoon tribesmen from the North-West Frontier Province
(NWFP) on the hapless protestors. These tribesmen invaded Gilgit, indulged in arson, ransacked houses and destroyed standing crops and left the area smouldering for years. Brig
Musharraf, of course, revelled in his success. Pakistan’s nefarious designs in using the people of the Northern Areas as cannon fodder and then refusing to acknowledge the contribution of the NLI battalions to Operation Badr were viewed with the utmost consternation by the people. Of the 772 Pakistani soldiers, including 69 officers and 76 SSG personnel, who laid down their lives for a militarily futile venture, almost 80 per cent belonged to the NLI battalions. Of these, over 200 were buried with military honours by the Indian Army in graves at heights ranging from 15,000 to 17,000 feet because the Pakistan army refused to take their bodies back. The people of the Northern Areas were extremely agitated by these developments and expressed their resentment in no uncertain terms when Mr Nawaz Sharif and Musharraf visited the region after the Pakistan army had withdrawn. The simmering discontent of the past 50 years and deep resentment against being treated as second-class citizens has now led to a widespread demand for the state of
Balawaristan. The people are demanding democratic rule and the right to govern themselves. A large number of influential leaders of the Northern Areas have buried their political differences and joined hands to form the Balawaristan National Front
(BNF), with its head office at Majini Mohalla, Gilgit. ADNI |
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Expulsions: revolt in J & K
Cong New Delhi, June 10 The leaders have met party President Sonia Gandhi besides other senior leaders of the AICC here to convey their dissatisfaction and anger over the style of functioning of the PCC chief. The rebel leaders have indicated that they would stay in the capital till they get some assurance on their demand for the replacement of the PCC chief. Though the party high command had been getting feelers about discontent in the state party unit the immediate reason for the large number of state Congress leaders descending on the Capital was the “arbitrary expulsion” of eight leaders including an AICC member, four DCC presidents and three PCC members by Mr
Qureshi. The expulsion orders were apparently passed in the first week of June without any show-cause notices having been issued to the party members concerned. Sources said at a party conclave in the valley last month, 106 PCC members had moved a resolution seeking the replacement of Mr Qureshi. “We have even offered the high command to hold elections if it wants to ascertain the choice of the partymen for the PCC chief,” a rebel leaders said. He said more leaders from the state were expected to join them in Delhi tomorrow.
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Strengthen
PM’s hands, Shah urges people Jammu, June 10 Mr Shah told newspersons here today that the wars between India and Pakistan had not resolved the Kashmir issue but only inflicted miseries on the people of the two countries. He said since both India and Pakistan had become nuclear states friendly relations between the two had become imperative for peace in the subcontinent. In reply to a question he said Delhi had shown maturity by agreeing to talks with the separatists. He said he was opposed to the trifurcation of the state. Mr Shah these days is on the tour of the Jammu region and he said his purpose of visiting various areas in the three regions was to build confidence among the people and hoped that the Government of India would fulfill its assurances given to the people. |
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Pilgrim rush to Vaishnodevi Jammu, June 10 “Over 30,000 to 35,000 pilgrims are reaching Katra town, the base camp for onward journey to the holy cave shrine daily”, a spokesman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVSB) said. In May this year, 5.70 lakh devotees visited the shrine, 5.53 lakh from outside the state. As many as 25,000 pilgrims from different parts of the country and abroad had ‘darshan’ of the holy embodiments in the shrine yesterday and another 15,000 were awaiting their turn, the spokesman said.
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