Kashmir’s nowhere men scamper for cover

“Ever since we have joined the BJP, the Government has stopped harassing us unnecessarily,” says Liyaqat, leader of J&K Ikhwan, who recently joined the BJP. His group emerged as a popular rebel force after the killing of a noted Islamic scholar Mirwiaz Qazi Nissar by pro-Pakistan militants in Anantnag in 1994. The town has since been controlled by Ikhwan boys and is free of armed militancy.

At least four premier counter-insurgent groups have survived in Kashmir after thereturn of normalcy. Besides Ikhwan, these are the Kukka Parrey’s All J&K Ikhwan, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Peoples Political Front and the scattered groups of Gujjar tribesman in northern Kashmir.

Politicians made use of the counter-insurgents — for coming to power and later for staying there. The ruling National Conference of course set the trend. The NC conveniently owns up and disowns former militants. For example, the party openly engineered defection in the Awami Leauge, the once most formidable group of Kukka Parrey by offering a seat for his lieutenant Javed Shah in the upper house of the State Legislature and dumped the rest of the counter-insurgents.

The ambiguity of the NC Government’s policy on counter-insurgents continues. Saifudin Soz, the party nominee for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, started his campaign by lambasting these “renegades” while the other candidate, Mohammad Yusuf Taing openly seeks help of these former militants of Ghulam Nabi Azad in Anantnag constituency to organise publicmeetings.

Parrey, a former militant who made it to the State Legislative Assembly last year, has withstood the pressure from the NC. He averted a recent split in his party, allegedly engineered by the NC. His candidate for the Lok Sabha Usman Majeed is working hard. To some extent, the Awami Leauge is the only counter-insurgent group with some political genuineness. “We have fielded our candidates from two constituencies and they are hopeful,” says a spokesman of the party.

Papa Kishtwari, another former militant who is credited with cleansing the saffron town of Pampore located on the strategic Srinagar-Jammu National Highway of Al-Jehad militants, is in the fray without much hope. “I am not even being provided security cover for my campaign,” says Papa, who is an independent candidate from Anantnag. His wife Hafiza is contesting once again apparently not with the hope of winning but for getting “doubly eligible for security cover.”

“We face a real threat from pro-Pakistani militants, who havemade elimination of counter-insurgents their main task in the post-election Kashmir,” says a senior functionary of the Awami League justifying the candidature of former militants in the Lok Sabha for security reasons. Several counter-insurgent bastions such as Kupwara, Safapore, Ganderbaland even parts of Anantnag villages fell to pro-Pak militants in the aftermath of elections. A number of counter-insurgents were killed.

The NC is not the only villain in the game. Even the Congress has played dirty politics with these former militants. The case of Choudhary Jalaludin, the first man to raise his voice against the gun in 1990, is the most brazen one. This tall Gujjar tribesman from Wasun village felt betrayed by both men in uniform and politicians alike. “Men like me seem to be losing on all fronts I am the top-most target of the ISI for my role as a counter-insurgent; the Congress did not give me ticket for the State elections; the ruling National Conference chose my small village for neglect anddiscrimination in matters of recruitment,” he said.

Pushed to the wall, Jalaludin announced his entry into the NC recently and hoped it would end an era of insecurity for him.