08-26-2008, 07:01 PM
Was this widely commented in the DDM?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It's murder
The Kashmiri separatist movement is in self-destruct mode again, writes N.V.Subramanian.
22 August 2008: <b>The National Security Advisor, M.K.Narayanan's shocking disclosure to the Union cabinet that Sheikh Abdul Aziz was murdered by his Hurriyat colleagues and did not fall to police bullets heading a procession to Muzzaffarabad would drop temperatures in Kashmir.</b> No Hurriyat or other separatist leader will publicly endorse the NSA, and predictably, they will condemn it as Indian government propaganda.
But remember that Kashmiri Muslims are a small community, and nothing remains hidden very long from them. For example, they know that Pakistan ordered the assassination of Maulvi Muhammad Farooq, the present Mirwaiz, Umar Farooq's father, and Abdul Ghani Lone. And they accept that the Hizbul Mujahideen, once backed by Pakistan with funds, weapons and military training, generally and ruthlessly targeted JKLF cadres, because its demand for Kashmiri independence most reflected the people's will then.
But no Kashmiri Muslim leader will readily acknowledge the truth of Abdul Aziz's murder. In private conversations, they may reveal some, and Kashmiri journalists would be the first to know. It is not clear who the NSA's sources are, but he would have a variety of informants, besides the forensic report on Aziz's death. <b>But as the shock and horror of the murder spreads, it will slowly but steadily impact on the Hurriyat protests. </b>Already, there is resentment at the most pro-Pakistan of the secessionists, Syed Ali Shah Geelani's attempts to take control of the protests. Abdul Aziz's murder will add to the rift, and may be the internal, though deeply buried, cause of the rift.
While the government will, and should, give the widest publicity to this murder, to alert Kashmiris how the separatist movement has amucked itself, <b>there are other reasons also to suggest that the secessionist temperature will drop. Kashmiris know that 2008 is not 1989-90 when "azaadi" seemed "around the corner". That was also roughly the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union, and Pakistani jihadi strategists thought if the communist empire could unravel, so could India, a far lesser power. Besides, India was already embattled on the Punjab front.
But the army prevented the separation of Kashmir, and bit by bit, control was regained over the Valley. That was also the time when the so-called mujahideen were coming to power in Afghanistan, and a lot of Afghan irregulars were inserting into Kashmir. Later, even the Taliban was supposed to turn its fiery attack against J and K, but the army remained undaunted. Then Pakistan realized the limitations of employing Kashmiri militants, and it set up Pakistani terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, although the Jaish was a post-Kandahar hijack development. Yet all this Indian forces endured, and they fought a hard war to bring reasonable peace to Kashmir. </b>
Kashmiris know that however much they demonstrate, or march to the local UN office, independence and separation from India are not coming. <b>This writer is not going into the moral issues of keeping Kashmir, but the fact is the Indian State is very powerful, and J and K will remain a part of India for the foreseeable future. This fact, if reinforced sufficiently on the ground in Kashmir, will rob the separatist movement of passion and immediacy, and Sheikh Abdul Aziz's murder revelation will further assist the cause. But care should be taken that the security forces exercise restraint, and do not shoot unless gravely provoked. </b>
Jammu is the source of apprehension, and nothing short of return of one hundred acres to the Amarnath Shrine Board will resolve matters. That the transfer of land is temporary, only for two months during the Amarnath Yatra, and that the proprietorship of land remains unchanged with the forest department, should be hammered again and again in the Valley, till the mood changes, which is possible.
N.V.Subramanian is Editor, NewsInsight.net. Har-Anand has published his new second novel, Courtesan of Storms.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It's murder
The Kashmiri separatist movement is in self-destruct mode again, writes N.V.Subramanian.
22 August 2008: <b>The National Security Advisor, M.K.Narayanan's shocking disclosure to the Union cabinet that Sheikh Abdul Aziz was murdered by his Hurriyat colleagues and did not fall to police bullets heading a procession to Muzzaffarabad would drop temperatures in Kashmir.</b> No Hurriyat or other separatist leader will publicly endorse the NSA, and predictably, they will condemn it as Indian government propaganda.
But remember that Kashmiri Muslims are a small community, and nothing remains hidden very long from them. For example, they know that Pakistan ordered the assassination of Maulvi Muhammad Farooq, the present Mirwaiz, Umar Farooq's father, and Abdul Ghani Lone. And they accept that the Hizbul Mujahideen, once backed by Pakistan with funds, weapons and military training, generally and ruthlessly targeted JKLF cadres, because its demand for Kashmiri independence most reflected the people's will then.
But no Kashmiri Muslim leader will readily acknowledge the truth of Abdul Aziz's murder. In private conversations, they may reveal some, and Kashmiri journalists would be the first to know. It is not clear who the NSA's sources are, but he would have a variety of informants, besides the forensic report on Aziz's death. <b>But as the shock and horror of the murder spreads, it will slowly but steadily impact on the Hurriyat protests. </b>Already, there is resentment at the most pro-Pakistan of the secessionists, Syed Ali Shah Geelani's attempts to take control of the protests. Abdul Aziz's murder will add to the rift, and may be the internal, though deeply buried, cause of the rift.
While the government will, and should, give the widest publicity to this murder, to alert Kashmiris how the separatist movement has amucked itself, <b>there are other reasons also to suggest that the secessionist temperature will drop. Kashmiris know that 2008 is not 1989-90 when "azaadi" seemed "around the corner". That was also roughly the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union, and Pakistani jihadi strategists thought if the communist empire could unravel, so could India, a far lesser power. Besides, India was already embattled on the Punjab front.
But the army prevented the separation of Kashmir, and bit by bit, control was regained over the Valley. That was also the time when the so-called mujahideen were coming to power in Afghanistan, and a lot of Afghan irregulars were inserting into Kashmir. Later, even the Taliban was supposed to turn its fiery attack against J and K, but the army remained undaunted. Then Pakistan realized the limitations of employing Kashmiri militants, and it set up Pakistani terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, although the Jaish was a post-Kandahar hijack development. Yet all this Indian forces endured, and they fought a hard war to bring reasonable peace to Kashmir. </b>
Kashmiris know that however much they demonstrate, or march to the local UN office, independence and separation from India are not coming. <b>This writer is not going into the moral issues of keeping Kashmir, but the fact is the Indian State is very powerful, and J and K will remain a part of India for the foreseeable future. This fact, if reinforced sufficiently on the ground in Kashmir, will rob the separatist movement of passion and immediacy, and Sheikh Abdul Aziz's murder revelation will further assist the cause. But care should be taken that the security forces exercise restraint, and do not shoot unless gravely provoked. </b>
Jammu is the source of apprehension, and nothing short of return of one hundred acres to the Amarnath Shrine Board will resolve matters. That the transfer of land is temporary, only for two months during the Amarnath Yatra, and that the proprietorship of land remains unchanged with the forest department, should be hammered again and again in the Valley, till the mood changes, which is possible.
N.V.Subramanian is Editor, NewsInsight.net. Har-Anand has published his new second novel, Courtesan of Storms.
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