New Delhi, March 25
In a wheels-within-wheels event of immense political fall-out, All Party Hurriyat Conference leader Yasin Malik was arrested in Srinagar, apparently done in by rival factions of the Hurriyat, in the case of seizure of one lakh US dollars allegedly brought for him from Pakistan via Nepal.
Well-placed sources here disclosed that Mr Malik’s arrest put an end to a tense tightrope walk situation the Vajpayee government found itself in for the past couple of days as the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Office A S Dulat - the former RAW Chief who is currently incharge of Jammu and Kashmir related issues — were against the arrest of Mr Malik or any Hurriyat leader for that matter.
However, Union Home Minister L K Advani put his foot down and in a display of his pro-active policy directed the prime mover and shaker in the Malik drama — the Intelligence Bureau (IB) — to go ahead with the arrest of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman if it was convinced that it was an open-and-shut case.
The PMO was in favour of a softer approach towards Mr Malik in view of the upcoming elections for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. But Mr Advani, who has no love lost for Mr Brajesh Mishra and who has his own reservations over the functioning of the PMO, thought otherwise, sources said.
It all started last week when one Aftab Qadri, a representative of the Hurriyat in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), handed over $ 1 lakh in cash to one Shazia Begum in a Kathmandu hotel to be delivered to Mr Malik in Srinagar.
Despite Mr Malik’s claims of innocence and his not knowing Shazia Begum, sources said the courier happened to be the wife of JKLF spokesman. They said it was never their case that Shazia and Mr Malik knew each other, adding that it was not at all necessary for a courier to know the person for whom the packet is meant.
Qadri is a known Muzaffarabad-based operative of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). He keeps travelling to Nepal, a hotbed of ISI activities where the ISI has cultivated a large number of Kashmiri traders.
The moment Shazia
Begum
landed in Delhi last week after her meeting with Qadri, the security agencies were aware of her mission. But they kept a low profile and did not pounce upon their quarry fearing pressure from higher-ups for shoving the case under the carpet because of the upcoming elections in J&K.The agencies allowed Shazia Begum to travel to Srinagar but tailed her throughout the journey. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was also privy to the entire operation through his own channels and was believed to be strongly in favour of arresting Mr Yasin Malik.
Sources said the security agencies were apparently tipped off by some rival factions of the Hurriyat who were peeved with the announcement of a parallel Election Commission in J&K as they believed that the move was Mr Yasin Malik’s brainchild.
The Hurriyat boat was rocked violently by this move. Insiders revealed to “The Tribune” today that Mr Malik had floated an impression within the Hurriyat that the move for setting up a parallel Election Commission in J & K had the blessings of the United States.
Sources said the USA came to know about Hurriyat’s move days before its formal announcement. Rattled up by Mr Malik’s intrigues, the US Ambassador here, Mr Robert D Blackwill, cancelled his appointment with the Hurriyat leaders.
The Hurriyat took it as an American signal that it disapproved of the move to set up a parallel Election Commission for J&K. The cancellation of an appointment with Mr Blackwill was a setback to the Hurriyat and an influential section within the Hurriyat squarely blamed Mr Malik for it.
This proved to be Mr Malik’s undoing. He was arrested just before he was to address a Press conference in Srinagar to defend himself.
