Intifada-2010 was changed tactics of LeT, Pak Army, says IGP

135 Govt officials found involved in stone pelting, 7 held under PSA, 60 more being detained

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Nov 26: Inspector General of Police, Shiv Murari Sahai, today claimed that militant organization Lashkar-e-Toiba and Pakistani Army had a direct hand behind five-month-long street agitation in Kashmir valley this year. He said that in addition to regular separatist activists and social criminals like smugglers and drug racketeers, a section of the state government employees was also in the forefront of the turbulence. According to the head of executive Police in the Valley, as many as 135 government employees had been found involved in stone pelting, of whom seven had been held under Public Safety Act (PSA) and orders had been issued to arrest 60 more of them.

In order to establish that the street agitation was simply the changed strategy of Lashkar and Pakistani Army, S M Sahai produced a lately detained Pakistani militant at a news conference who was identified as Saleem Rehmani alias Abu Sayeed of Nawwab Shah, Sindh. IGP said that he had been arrested over a specific information recently in the Central Kashmir district of Budgam. Sahai, corroborated by Rehmani, said that a large number of Kashmiri and Pakistani guerrilla recruits were currently under training and indoctrination at a number of camps in Pakistan. He even claimed that Pakistani Army was even today supporting and encouraging infiltration of the trained militants one LoC and International Border dividing India and Pakistan. Rehmani, however, insisted that his organization was handling everything independently and he was not witness to any supporting role from the Pakistani armed forces.

Claiming to be quoting Rehmani’s disclosures, IGP said that over 300 cadres had been trained in guerrilla warfare at a number of camps in Pakistan recently and 50 of them were always in the infiltration mode at five lately created ‘launching pads” close to the disputed border. He claimed that 48 of the highly trained militants had succeeded in infiltrating into the Valley in the last few weeks, though three of them had been killed in an encounter with security forces in Lolab valley of Kupwara district. He said that search was underway to get others of the group arrested or eliminated. IGP said that the Pakistan-based militants, particularly Lashkar-e-Toiba cadres, and their sponsors in the Army had adopted stone pelting, attacks on public properties and street clashes with Police and CRPF as a fresh strategy after suffering major setbacks on the guerrilla front.

Sahai said that under orders from their high command in Pakistan, a number of militants were mobilizing the local youth and encouraging them to throw stones on Police and paramilitary forces. He said that some mosques and madrasas in the Valley were being used by these militants to indoctrinate and recruit fresh cadres. According to him, a detained militant had been found brainwashing the youth at a madrasa in Batmaloo area of this capital city. Sahai said that the detained militant had been found involved in throwing hand grenades in Sarafkadal and Safakadal in downtown Srinagar. He revealed that 18 hand grenades had been recovered from the stone pelting youth in Safakadal area while as one rifle grenade and a Police uniform had been seized from a stone pelter in Sopore.

IGP said that drug dealers and timber smugglers, besides Hurriyat activists, had played a key role in fomenting current year’s mass turbulence as they had developed vested interest in the mayhem. He disclosed that a Tehsil President of Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s Tehreek-e-Hurriyat had been arrested, of late, on account of his contact with the Pakistan-based militant, Furqan, in Baramulla, who had also revealed how Intifada-2010 was a “well orchestrated plan of the powers across the border”.

Sahai said that a large number of timber smugglers and drug racketeers had also kept the flames of turbulence high as they had discovered brisk business under the smokescreen of the “freedom struggle”. He said that the most disturbing part of the situation was perceptible involvement of several employees of the Government of Jammu & Kashmir. According to him, 135 government officials had been found seriously involved in carrying out street demonstrations and stone pelting. Of them, seven had been detained under PSA and orders had been issued to arrest 60 more of the unruly youth. IGP said that the state government was mulling strong action against these government officials.

As regards the flow of funds to the militants and separatist activists, IGP asserted that the Government had established control on the turbulence to a large extent and very serious efforts were now underway to lay hand on the financial infrastructure of the guerrilla outfits. 

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