| KASHMIR SENTINEL
August 16-September
15, 2000
Prof Bhim Singh on Hizbul Mujahideen ‘Ceasefire’ Was Hizbul’s offer a trap The much hyped dialogue offer (which has since been revoked) of one of the terrorist-groups, Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), had caused a flutter in the Indian media and panic among the slumbering bureaucracy in the North and South Blocks in New Delhi. There was nothing surprising in the offer as the Hurriyat Conference, which represented all the Kashmiri militant groups including the Hizbul Mujahideen, had disclosed its intention to talk to the Central government in 1999. A little surprise was felt when the HM declared a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir. How did it matter when 23 terrorist groups continued to hold foreign guns at the behest of the ISI to perpetuate bloodshed in Kashmir.Interestingly, a so-called leader of the HM sitting in Pakistan under the shadows of the Pakistani guns had announced a committee of 3-member team to start a dialogue with the Government of India. None of them had any links in the Valley of Kashmir nor they had any association with the Kashmiri boys holding Pakistani guns in the Valley. All the three persons have been working for the ISI in the UK and the US for the past 10 years. The ISI is still backed by the Anglo-American plot to internationalise the problem of Jammu and Kashmir in one way or the other. The Anglo-American game plan to trap Yugoslavia over Kosovo (an undisputed district of Serbia) on a single negotiating table in Rambouillet, Paris, resulted in a NATO aggression against Yugoslavia and landing of NATO soldiers in Kosovo which even according to the United Nations was an integral constituent of Yugoslavia. Therer is no doubt that the Hizbul’s dialogue offer had emerged mainly due to US intervention in the same way it was conceived vis-a-vis Kosovo. Particularly when Mr Clinton has assumed the role of a mediator, India should learn from the Kosovo experiment and its consequences. Pakistan does not want to give credit to any local Kashmiri leadership as it is against the creation of another Sheikh Abdullah at its cost any more. It was for this reason that it chose the non-Kashmiri residents for the purpose of dialogue with American approval in the same way as the US had done in respect of KLA, which in fact was declared a terrorist group by the administration of the United States. The Government of India must constitute an all-party parliamentary group to supervise any talks with anybody. This group should have the final say to frame the agenda and the terms of reference for the committee holding dialogue with anybody. The dialogue should be held with the citizens of India residing in Jammu and Kashmir and not with the foreigners and agents of the ISI and the CIA. Lest Kashmir should go the Kosovo way, dialogue with the Indian citizens on the Indian soil will alone clinch the issue. There is no difference between the mercenaries and foreign nominees to any negotiation. Bureaucrats, we can understand, will perpetuate their existence by pushing politicians into a danger zone. But how could the seasoned leaders like Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani walk into a well-thought-out trap?r Source: The Hindu |