Geelani will continue tough line
JAMMU, April 30 — The Leadership of the six-year-old All-Party Hurriyat Conference has again passed into the hands of "hawks".

Armed, trained, but not raring to go
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, April 30 — The police and security forces have foiled Pak designs of recruiting Sikh youth from the Jammu region for reviving militancy in Punjab and forcing migration of members of the minority community from the upper reaches of Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur districts.

The police and the BSF have intensified patrolling on the international border (IB) from Akhnoor to Kathua to prevent infiltration and arms smuggling.

Stating this the Director General of Police, Mr Gurbachan Jagat, told newsmen here today that since the rate of elimination of militants was higher than the rate of infiltration there was no cause for alarm.

He said as local youths were not willing to join militant outfits, Pak agencies were concentrating on pushing in foreign mercenaries, including Afghan guerrillas. Reports with the government revealed that several hundred Kashmiri boys, who had completed arms training across the border were not prepared to sneak into the state for fighting the security forces and the ISI was delaying their entry into Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Jagat said infiltration continued from the Kupwara and Machel areas in Kashmir and Poonch and Rajouri in the Jammu sector. The latest reports showed between 100 and 150 militants, most of them foreign mercenaries, had infiltrated into Jammu during the winter. The ISI had even started pushing in regular Army men and ex-servicemen equipped with high-grade weapons and communication system.

Claiming that the security scenario in the Kashmir valley had witnessed a marked improvement during the past months, the police chief said it was because of this that a large number of tourists were visiting the valley. He said the valley expected a heavy tourist inflow over the next three months. Adequate security arrangements had been made in all tourist resorts in Kashmir.

The improvement in the security situation could be credited to the people's cooperation, better coordination, an improved intelligence network and the changed face of the police.

He said militants had started targeting policemen, members of Village Defence Committees and Special Police Officers (SPOs) as these three wings had thwarted the militant plan. Hence, the attempt to demoralise them. At present 1,600 Village Defence Committees, 13,500 SPOs and 3,500 ex-servicemen were helping the security forces in blunting the militant offensive.

Mr Jagat said despite financial constraints the police and VDC members were being equipped with modern weapons and communication systems. As many as 500 wireless sets had been given to VDCs.

He said in order to check the rate of infiltration 114 additional border pickets were being set up and the Government of India had okayed the proposal. Over 176 defence pickets had been set up in different parts of the state to provide security to members of the minority community.

In reply to a question Mr Jagat said most complaints against men of the Special Task Force and Special Operation Group of the police were found to be false. However, investigations were conducted in all the complaints and over 300 policemen penalised on charges of having committed excesses or indulged in extortion.

He praised officers and the constabulary for having played a key role in containing militancy. The police took part in 80 per cent of joint operations. In 20 per cent of operations in which the police was physically present the operations bore results because of the intelligence inputs provided by the police. 40 per cent of the total arms were recovered by the police.

He said the state needed additional companies of paramilitary and a request had been sent to the centre.

Geelani will continue tough line
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, April 30 — The Leadership of the six-year-old All-Party Hurriyat Conference, a conglomeration of 28 political and religious groups, has again passed into the hands of "hawks" following the decision of the top leaders of the organisation to allow Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to continue in office for another year.

The issue of deciding on a leader to replace Mr Geelani was taken up by the party leadership but there were no takers for the post of the chairman.

A senior leader even said at the meeting that one year term for a chairman was too small a period to determine his output. So it was unanimously decided that Mr Geelani be asked to continue as chairman for another year.

Mr Geelani had taken over as chairman last year from Maulvi Umar Farooq who in turn was chairman for a period of three years. During his chairmanship, the downtown area of Srinagar, which is his stronghold, would respond to any call for a bandh given by the APHC.

But in recent months there was once no response to the APHC call for bandh and APHC leaders discussed this matter with Maulvi Umar Farooq, who tactfully deflected the APHC criticism saying the call for bandh had not been fully publicised.

Mr Geelani has succeeded in narrowing down ideological differences between the APHC constituents and his re-election will allow the Jamat-e-Islami continue to dominate the APHC politics. Mr Geelani is one of the founder members of Jamait-e-Islami. A "hawk" on many occasions in the part he voiced strong criticism of moderates in the Jamaat. As Chairman of the HC he will continue to oppose the moderate line on the Kashmir issue.

Interestingly there are not many leaders prepared to accept the post of Chairman of the APHC as their stature, except that of Mr Abdul Gani Lone, is smaller than that of Mr Geelani and they do not want to risk treading on a bed of thorns. And since the Jamait-e-Islami is the only cadre-based secessionist organisation, no non-Jamaat leader can shoulder the responsibility.