Home Minister visits JuM chief’s home

Nasir Aslam Wani: “Deceased woman’s mother was from my village”

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jul 27: After years of blaming Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for being soft and sympathetic to militants, Omar Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) seems to have adopted the policy of winning the goodwill of top militant commanders in the Valley. In a significant development yesterday, Chief Minister’s confidante and Minister of State for Home, Nasir Aslam Wani, attended a condolence meeting at the home of “Commander-in-Chief” of Jamiatul Mujahideen, Ghulam Rasool Shah alias ‘General’ Abdullah in his home district of Kupwara.

Informed sources in Kupwara told Early Times that during his tour of Haihama area, MoS Home, Nasir Aslam Wani, paid a visit to the home of Ghulam Rasool Shah alias ‘General’ Abdullah and Ali Mohammad Shah at Mirnag hamlet in the afternoon on Wednesday. Ghulam Rasool Shah and Ali Mohammad Shah are real brothers. Ali Mohammad Shah’s wife, Ayesha Begum, had passed away last week. Sources said that Mr Wani, alongwith a number of his party activists and government officials of his subordinate departments, stayed at the Shah’s house for about 20 minutes. In the evening, Minister returned to Srinagar.

Brother of the deceased woman’s husband, Ghulam Rasool Shah alias General Abdullah, has been operating as “Commander-in-Chief” of the dreaded militant organisation Jamiatul Mujahideen (JuM) since 1995-96. He had been arrested by security forces but gave a slip to his Police guards at SMHS Hospital in Srinagar in 1997. He is reported to have crossed the LoC and established his base in Muzaffarabad and Islamabad in the same year. According to official records and other independent reports, ‘General’ Abdullah has been operating as “Commander-in-Chief” of JuM in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and has never returned to Valley in the last 14 years. He also happens to be one of the most important functionaries of the guerrilla umbrella, United Jihad Council (UJC), next in hierarchy to only its Chairman and “Supreme Commander” of Hizbul Mujahideen, Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salah-ud-din.

Police and security forces have conducted scores of raids on Shah’s house in search of militants. The Shahs dismantled their house and later constructed a new one in the same hamlet, nearly 8 Kms from Kupwara. Forces have allegedly picked up one of Ayesha’s sons and made him a victim of enforced disappearance over a decade ago.

MLA of Amirakadal constituency in Srinagar, Nasir Aslam Wani is originally a resident of Sogam village of Kupwara district. He happens to be the grandson of legendary politician, late Ghulam Nabi Wani Sogami, who functioned as MLA of Kupwara and Minister of Forest in then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad’s Cabinet for several years in 1950s. Nasir and his father, who passed away recently, have been living in the posh locality of Rajbagh in Srinagar since 1970s. He contested his maiden elections in 2008 and was returned from Amirakadal.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah inducted Nasir as a junior Minister in his Council of Ministers in July 2009. Already functioning as MoS of Revenue, Irrigation & PHE, Housing & Urban Development, besides few other departments, he has been lately assigned the most sensitive Home portfolio.

Mr Wani confirmed his participation in a condolence meeting at Ghulam Rasool Shah’s and Ali Mohammad Shah’s home at Mirnag, Haihama but maintained that he had no knowledge of Ghulam Rasool Shah’s being the fugitive “Commander-in-Chief” of Jamiatul Mujahideen. “I have no idea even about the background of another brother Ali Mohammad Shah. I went there simply because of the fact that the deceased woman, Ayesha, happened to be the daughter of a woman from my village Sogam. Ayesha’s mother, who has died 25 years ago, was close to my mother and others in our family at Sogam”, Mr Wani said.

Residents of Mirnag, however, refused to buy the Minister’s argument. “Nasir Sahab came here only for General Abdullah. Had he been concerned about the woman, he would have visited her when she was ill for a long time or was searching for her missing son”, said a neighbour.

A number of Kashmiri mainstream politicians have been keeping top-ranking militant commanders in good humour by way of visiting their homes on occasions of a death or wedding, shifting officials according to their choice and even distributing IAY units and Anganwari centres and allotting developmental works on their recommendations. However, none of such allegations has so far surfaced against Mr Wani.

Number of militant-friendly leaders in NC has remained the lowest. Under Dr Farooq Abdullah’s leadership, NC had taken a tough stand against militants. Nevertheless, leaders like the high profile Sharief-ud-din Shariq and late Mushtaq Ahmed Lone, who functioned as MoS Home till his assassination in September 2002, were known for their soft corner and good relations with militants. During the street turbulence of 2008, NC’s senior leader and Dr Abdullah’s brother, Dr Mustafa Kamal, had hogged headlines when he visited families of two slain militants in Palhalan, Pattan.

In recent times, longtime associate of the slain separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone, Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rasheed, has attained the profile of a militant-friendly mainstream politician. He has been functioning as independent MLA of Langate, Kupwara, since January 2009. With his several speeches in Assembly, Er Rasheed has created ripples in the state. While stressing on inclusion of Hizb chief Salah-ud-din in the dialogue process to resolve Kashmir, Er Rasheed has also attended funeral prayers of a number of militants killed in gunbattles with security forces.

Even as pro-militant tantrums have become a mark of identification for the PDP and the party’s President, Mehbooba Mufti, has been frequently accused of her “connections” with top militants like Aamir Khan, former Janata Dal leader and union MoS Home, Mohammad Maqbool Dar, had also visited residences and hideouts of top militant commanders, including that of Aamir Khan, in 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

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