The gentle face of terror

SRINAGAR, Aug 8 (PTI) — He wears only denim and sports Reebok shoes. He drives a Maruti car. He offers namaz five times a day and does not even make eye contact with women.

Meet Salamatullah (name changed), one of the new breed of hardcore Afghan mercenaries pushed into the country to intensify militancy in the Kashmir valley and gain popular support.

Salamatullah who was trained in Afghanistan was arrested here recently on a tip-off and according to official sources he had even obtained an identity card as a shopkeeper.

The new batch of foreign mercenaries, including Pakistanis, Afghans and Sudanese, have been asked by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) not only to strictly follow Islamic tenets like offering namaz but also to respect local women to gain public support, the sources said.

"Earlier, wine, women and wealth used to bring them here, but now we are dealing with extremely motivated militants, who have come with a specific mission," said Mr B.N. Kabu, Deputy Inspector-General, BSF, Srinagar.

Another significant aspect of the new strategy is that unlike in the past, the new breed pays villagers generously for food and lodging and does not take things at gunpoint.

"Militants are paying hefty sums to poor villagers and respecting womenfolk not only to gain sympathy but to safeguard their movements and hideouts as well," says Mr A.S. Mangat, Inspector-General, BSF (Baramula frontier).

Over 1,500 foreign mercenaries have infiltrated into the Kashmir valley between May and July this year and the command of almost all active groups are today in their hands, according to the sources.

"The Kashmiris are basically a peace loving people and as such the militants surrendered without giving much of a fight to the forces. In fact, many of them went to Pakistan only to collect the money offered and after returning used to dump the weapons. ISI has lost all faith in them and is now focusing more on Afghans," said a police officer.

Even Army and BSF officials concede that the Afghan militants are a tough bunch, a reason they cite for their continual inability to nab many of them.

"Let us face it. They are a motivated lot. They know they will die anyway. They reserve the last bullet for themselves," said a BSF official in Kupwara.

Factor which forced Pakistan to adopt the new strategy was the drying up of support from locals due to the atrocities by the militants, including lifting of girls and extortion.

While the new Pakistani strategy has started paying dividends, the security forces, including the BSF, have launched a counter-offensive by funding medical, sports and educational activities of the common Kashmiris, suitably rewarding informers and stressing on causing minimum harassment to the public during cordon and search operations.

In Baramula alone, the BSF received a grant of Rs 36 lakh for its civic action programme while the force is running the central school at Bandipora.

Inferior tents for cave pilgrims
Reports of officials making money
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Aug 8 — Inferior quality of tents provided by private parties without government approval at various halting stations on the trek to holy cave shrine of Amarnath from Chandanwari, will pose grave threat to the lives of pilgrims in the event of bad weather and snow in the area.

Substandard tents have been set up at various halting stations along the 46-km long trek to the holy cave of Amarnath. Tents found to be poor quality would not withstand torrential rain or snow.

According to official sources, this has been due to mismanagement by the district administration of Anantnag, which looks after annual pilgrimage to the shrine in south Kashmir. Private parties installing tents along the trek between Chandanwari (2895 metres) and the cave (3992 metres) was necessitated this year as the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation (JK TDC) was unable to provide the necessary stock. The JK TDC could not provide these stocks this year as it already had made the supplies for displaced population in Kargil. The JK TDC, however, provided tents only for accommodating state government officials engaged in the conduct of the yatra.

Official sources here disclosed that a high-level meeting, headed by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Mr Khursheed Ahmad Ganai, as also the Chief Yatra Officer, on July 12, directed the district administration to allow private parties to set up tents to accommodate yatris along the 46-km long trek from Chandanwari to the cave. The district administration, instead invited tenders for the supply of tents from private parties. This, according to the sources, was against the decisions taken at the meeting held in connection with the yatra on July 12.

As the Yatra began 12 days after the meeting, on July 24, there was no arrangement for the tents to accommodate yatris on the trek. This created panic among the officials. The Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, is reported to have directed senior officers of the Tourism Department to make immediate necessary arrangements. The tenders notified were cancelled and private parties, in a huff, were asked to provide tents at prescribed rates. The tents were thus set up at random without looking into the standard and quality in view of the bad weather in the upper reaches of Pahalgam.

The tenders, according to the sources, were also "managed" by greasing the palm of some "vested interests" out to make "quick buck under such circumstances, sources said.

There have also been reports of favouritism and undue favours to some of the ponywallahs without proper registration through the Tourism Department. These ponywallahs had been allowed by the police to bypass the base camp at Chandanwari and provide facilities to the yatris without proper allotments. These would provide ponies at cheaper rates than the government approved rates of Rs 2300/- for each riding and pack pony from Chandanwari to the cave and return. In case of the "favoured " ponywallahs, the government department cannot be held responsible in case of any problem to the yatris, a tourism official claimed.

While opposing the move some Tourism Department officials objected to the practice. But the police succeeded in holding one of the officials on charges of "demanding money from ponywallahs". The officials was later released within hours with the intervention of the higher officers on Thursday. The police personnel reportedly connive with the local ponywallahs and allow them to make a fast buck without adhering to the rules. Action against the erring police personnel is still awaited.

J&K to have 5 million voters

SRINAGAR, Aug 8 (PTI) — Over five million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the three-phase polling for six Parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir on September 5, 11 and 18, State Election Office sources said here today.

No new voter has been registered since the 1998 Parliamentary elections, the sources said.

The final electoral rolls for all six Parliamentary constituencies in the state have been published and are available at district headquarters for the information of the people, they said.

As per these rolls, 50,17,618 persons are eligible to vote in the state. Of them, 22,94,851 are women, constituting 45.74 per cent of the total electorate, the sources said.

In the 1998 Parliamentary elections, the registered voters numbered 50,17,618 and 44.31 per cent of them exercised their democratic right — nearly 4 per cent less as compared to the 1996 parliamentary elections which were held in the state in over seven years.

As per the election schedule notified by the Election Commission, the Srinagar and Ladakh constituencies will go to the polls in the first phase on September 5.

Election to the Jammu and Udhampur constituencies will be held on September 11. The last phase of the three-tier polling in the Baramula and Anantnag constituencies will take place on September 18.

The Jammu constituency has the maximum number of 14,48,366 voters, followed by Udhampur (10,15,540), Srinagar (8,53,187), Anantnag (7,99,778), Baramula (7,57,255) and Ladakh (1,43,492).

The Ladakh constituency, which has the lowest number of voters, has the distinction of being the country's largest Parliamentary constituency in terms of area.

Yet another significant feature of the constituency is that women voters outnumber their opposite sex there. The constituency has 72,253 women and 71,230 male voters.

A total of 6,511 polling stations will be set up in the state for the polling, and their number could be increased if required and contesting parties demand so, the sources said.

These stations will be manned by 33,000 government employees besides hundreds of securitymen.

In addition, there are six returning officers, 14 district election officers and 87 assistant returning officers, the sources said.

2 Kargil heroes cremated

JAMMU, Aug 8 (PTI) — Bodies of two soldiers, who died fighting Pakistani troops in Kargil, were consigned to flames with full military honours at their native villages in Jammu district yesterday, official sources said here today.

While the body of Rifleman Ravi Kumar was cremated at Parla village of the RS Pura tehsil, that of Rifleman Mohinder Singh was consigned to flames at Kul-Khurd village of Bishnah tehsil, the sources said.

Both jawans belonged to the three Rashtriya Rifles.

Brigadier R.K. Panda and Colonel V.S. Jamwal laid wreaths on Kumar’s body on behalf of the GOC-in-C, Northern Command and GOC 16 Corps and GOC 26th Infantry Division.

Ravi Kumar laid down his life while delivering ammunition to forward posts in Kargil sector when his vehicle met with an accident due to enemy shelling.

He leaves behind his father, mother, three brothers and one sister.

Mohinder Singh’s cremation was attended by a large number of villagers who had come to the cremation ground to pay their homage to the departed soul.

Wreaths on behalf of senior military and civil officers were laid on his body. The guards sounded the Last Post and fired shots in the air as a mark of respect to the Kargil hero.