JAMMU, Aug 17 — While government agencies continue to maintain links with senior Hizbul Mujahideen leaders, including the chief commander, Abdul Majid Dar, pro-Pakistan rebel outfits, especially the Lashkar-e-Toiba have stepped up its campaign against the Hizbus Mujahideen.
Though soon after the withdrawal of the ceasefire top leaders of the Hizbul Mujahideen went underground, but their emissaries are in touch with the government. Informed sources said so far there has been no positive response from Majid Dar and his colleagues because they have been directed by their high command across the border to prepare for Jehad.
These sources said Abdul Majid Dar and his close associates find themselves between the devil and the deep sea as they are not yet sure whether they would be accepted by the secessionist groups advocating the cause of Kashmir’s incorporation with Pakistan. At the same time the group led by Abdul Majid Dar and the one headed by Hizb supremo Syed Salahuddin are both taking cautious steps to avoid split in the organisation. Both of them, according to sources close to Dar, are aware that a split in the Hizbul Mujahideen would be a major gain for those rebel outfits which are manned by foreign mercenaries.
Reports said the recent announcement of ceasefire has locked activists of the Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba in armed conflicts. More than five rebels have lost their lives in such inter-group armed clashes in Surankot, Rajouri and Kupwara. The failure of the Hizbul Mujahideen to have talks with the government is said to have invited displeasure from other rebel outfits who have started “taunting” Hizb activists. It is Hizb’s keenness to make up for the loss of face that its activists have carried out major armed attacks on security convoys and pickets, including two blasts near Kud and three grenade attacks on the police and the BSF in Kashmir, including the one near Kokernag.
State government sources said Hizbul Mujahideen activists were trying to foment subversive violence so as to force the government to initiate fresh moves for holding peace talks with former on terms that would be dictated by it. However, the government, on the other hand, has decided to adopt wait and watch whether Hizb’s boat, would sail to Islamabad or Delhi.
In this game of hide and seek the All Party Hurriyat Conference continues to be sidelined despite the fact that it has come to the centre stage after the Hizbul Mujahideen withdrew its ceasefire. Hurriyat Conference sources said that during the past three weeks there has been no direct or indirect link between them and the government. Prior to the announcement of ceasefire by the Hizbul Mujahideen ‘we used to get calls from mediators but now we have been ignored because we did jump over the offer for talks as Hizb did.”
The Hurriyat leaders have reiterated their support for tripartite talks on the plea that parleys without Pakistan’s involvement would not prove meaningful. They have conveyed to Delhi that bilateral talks, whether between the separatists and the government or between Islamabad and Delhi, would not solve the Kashmir issue.
