BREAKING HERE

Prof Amitabh Matoo, former Vice Chancellor University of Jammu and eminent academic, appointed as Advisor to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He will hold the rank of a Cabinet Minister. Congratulations to him on getting an important assignment in PDP-BJP government.

                          Fresh spell of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir

                                                                  (3)

  
In green land of ‘resistance’, law takes political course to protect an accused


Govt. hired Harish Salve for Rs 16 lakh to fail SP Javed Matoo’s bail in Shopian ‘rape-cum-murder’. When hero of the story Shakeel Ahangar attempted to burn his second wife to death, Police didn’t arrest him for two months till he got bail


Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
________

SRINAGAR, Aug 20:  A total of 12 successful operations by security forces and Police in entire Kashmir valley in eight months of the current year could be an indicator of the diminishing insurgency. However, the lately captured militant Naveed’s purported disclosures during interrogation make it clear that both, Kashmiri as well as Pakistani militants, have been moving throughput the hinterland with their arms and ammunition and without fear of being intercepted.

Of the 31 people killed in these operations, 22 were militants. However, the damage suffered by Police and security forces was no less significant. While the militants in an ambush gunned down three unarmed Policemen in Shopian, Commanding Officer of a Rashtriya Rifles battalion Col. M.N. Roy and another soldier were killed in a fierce encounter with militants in Tral area of Awantipora.

Striking at will, suspected militants shot dead as many as 11 civilians during the same period. Death of six civilians associated with mobile telecommunication in Sopore area spread a wave of fresh terror across the Valley.

While as the 12 successful operations occurred in Sopore, Awantipora, Shopian, Baramulla and Pulwama districts, not one took place in Kupwara, Handwara, Bandipore, Ganderbal, Budgam, Srinagar and Anantnag. One of the senior Police officers disclosed to STATE TIMES that the new brand of militants was trying to set up base and hideouts in the areas perceived to be free of insurgency.

With the senior officers and politicians neither visiting the sites of encounters and wreath-laying functions nor making a statement to contest the rumour mills, many of the Kashmiris still believe that Naveed is a "fake". Social media went uncontested till it successfully projected him as “an Indian”.

With nobody contesting the separatists' allegations, many of the Kashmiris seemed to believe for about two months that the guerrillas striking on telecom operators were somewhere linked to the Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's "counterterrorist militia". Coincidentally, the terrorist strikes in Sopore began in days of Parrikar's public statement that India should use terrorists against terrorists. Those attacked included some followers and workers of the pro-Pakistan hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Though SSPs and DIGs do supervise an operation, senior officers avoid being seen on the forefront---a tradition set up and sustained by hardcore counter-insurgents of the yesteryears like P.S. Gill, K. Rajendra Kumar and S.M. Sahai.

Being soft to the contributors of turmoil and separatist movement turned bizarre when the Police, purportedly under instructions of the political executive, ignored a housewife’s complaint and avoided booking her husband when she alleged in April 2015 that he had attempted to burn her to death for her failure to get him dowry. The accused was none other than Shakeel Ahmad Ahangar who set entire Kashmir on fire in 2009 with his allegation that Police and security forces had “raped and murdered” his first wife and sister.

For months in 2009, Ahangar’s allegations helped the separatists and then mainstream opposition PDP to sustain turbulence till CBI established in its investigation that the two women had been neither raped nor murdered. It concluded that a group of lawyers and doctors had actually hatched up a conspiracy and dismissed Ahangar’s allegations as unfounded. Cornered by the opposition, Omar Abdullah’s government got four Police officers, including SP Javed Iqbal Matoo, arrested. In order to ensure that the accused are not enlarged on bail, Government hired eminent Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve and reportedly paid him Rs 16 lakh only to contest the detainees’ plea in court. CBI later found all the four detainees innocent.

In April this year, Ahangar’s second wife got her statement recorded before a judicial magistrate under section 164 of Cr PC when she noticed that Police had no will to proceed against a man who had emerged as an icon of the separatist movement in 2009. Even after the complainant’s statement was recorded by a judge and a court rejected his anticipatory bail, Ahangar was not arrested for a second till, two months later, he, according to residents, succeeded to obtain bail from a magistrate. Ahangar’s second wife narrated to the judge how her husband and other members of his family sprinkled kersone oil on her clothes and body and attempted to burn her to death. Police admitted that the evidences of the crime had been seized.

"In such matters, Police normally conduct raids, arrest the accused and put him and his family members behind bars”, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat of Shopian observed. “But when the Police act selectively, as per the face of the accused, it makes a mockery of the whole system and provided confidence and over-empowerment to the elements who are sworn to exploit weaknesses of the system”. “Previously, a sense of injustice and victimhood made them extremists. Now, they feel stronger on noticing the weaknesses of law enforcement agencies”, Bhat added.

Even as the Police ducked in Ahangar’s matter, on April 6, militants ambushed and shot dead three unarmed Policemen in Shopian when they were returning from an investigation. 

[To be concluded]
  

                            Fresh spell of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir
                                                                        (2)

 

Militants escaped from 16 operations in 12 months

Ø Gallantry medals, out-of-turn promotions stopped for ‘operational’ personnel

 

Ø PSA detention dossiers turned down by District Magistrates

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Aug 19: Disbanding the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, prosecution of the ‘operational’ personnel allegedly involved in human rights abuse and revocation of J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act were the key planks of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s Peoples Democratic Party in the 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections. Even after National Conference regained power in partnership with Congress in 2009, Omar Abdullah seemed to be implementing PDP’s manifesto in his attempt to outsmart his arch rival. However, in the year-2010 street turmoil, that left over a hundred demonstrators dead and many more injured, he was compelled to rely heavily on the hard face of Police and paramilitary forces.

Omar recalled the counterinsurgency’s iconic faces like the once unceremoniously removed IGP Shiv Murari Sahai and SSP Ashiq Bukhari---who was the first in 2009 to be sent on a punishment posting for his “pro-PDP” tag---when almost all the ‘soft faces’ failed to deliver. Sahai’s team not only controlled the law and order situation effectively but also brought militancy to its lowest ebb in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Around its exit, militants began to regroup and the next two years indicated an upward swing in their growth. Senior Police officers found themselves vulnerable to serious political interventions and the things came to a head when DGP Ashok Prasad stopped listening to both, MOS Home Sajjad Kichloo as well as Principal Secretary Home Suresh Kumar.

With the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections drawing nearer, Omar and his Cabinet began emitting starker signals of “soft separatism”. Most of the detained militants and separatist activists were released from jails. District Magistrates turned down PSA dossiers submitted to them previously by SPs. Home Department under Omar reduced the PSA detention period from two years to six months and most of the detainees got the orders revoked in court with little resistance from the State.

All out-of-turn promotions recommended on the basis of a performance on counterterrorism front were suspended. Even the Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami made magisterial inquiry mandatory for all the Gallantry Medals recommended on the basis of an officer’s role in a counterterrorism operation.

Ironically, it didn’t pay any electoral dividends to the National Conference that had to be content with just half the seats it had bagged in 2008 and 2002 and one-fourth of what it had got in 1996.

By the time, Mufti assumed power, in coalition with BJP, for his second term, an ‘operational tag’ had become a total liability. Most of the SOG components became non-functional as numerous appointments of SPs and SDPOs were the outcome of only the political references. Even the senior officers whose districts had overnight turned into the fortresses of new-found insurgency, indoctrination and recruitment, were picked up for prize postings.

In the beginning, militants re-established their bases in the areas where the separatists enjoyed a strong ideological and social support. In a short span of time, insurgents began surfacing on Handwara-Sopore-Palhalan strip in the North and Tral-Awantipore-Pulwama-Shopian axis in the South. With the people dying in a fast sequence and the militants enjoying a field day, the government ignored every criticism on the working of the Police officers in the two “liberated zones”.

With little emphasis on combating insurgency and none of the Ministers, legislators and senior mainstream politicians attending a slain civilian’s funeral or a soldier’s wreath-laying ritual, militants are now understood to be establishing hideouts, training camps and communication networks  without fear of any resistance or interception. Even the websites and Google and Facebook pages that had been shut down by Police last year, have surfaced again with blatant abuses for the administrators. The level of confidence among the guerrilla cadres could be gauged from the fact that the militants and their ‘fans’ have been regularly uploading and broadcasting pictures, videos and other data files of the Hizbul Mujahideen group.

“It is well possible to block this entire terror traffic but it needs will and accountability”, said a senior Police officer. He admitted, on the condition of anonymity, that the spiralling militancy was “nobody’s headache today”.

IGP Kashmir Javaid Mujtaba Gillani refused to accept that the militancy was gaining a fresh ground in Kashmir since the beginning of 2014. He told STATE TIMES that this perception was wrong and “not borne out by facts”. According to him, the situation in 2015 is no different from that of 2014. DGP K. Rajendra Kumar did not respond to a WhatsApp request from this newspaper.

Two of the lower rung Police officers, nonetheless, admitted that entire pro-Indian political activity had been grounded to a halt in both the territories in the North and South of Kashmir. “The interrogation account of the detained LeT militant Naveed makes it clear that the militants are moving around with unprecedented confidence and without fear of being intercepted”, an official pointed out. He asserted that Massarat Alam’s release by the Mufti government, followed by an unprecedented pro-Pakistan demonstration outside DGP’s office on the day of hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s arrival from New Delhi, were the major moral boosters for the militants on either side of LoC.

Significantly, in the last 12 months, holed up militants have escaped from as many as 16 cordon-and-search operations. Around a dozen of such incidents have occurred since March 1, 2015, when the PDP-BJP government assumed office. On March 24, militants escaped from an operation at Badipora, on May 8 in Sugan Shopian, on May 19 in Heff Shirmal Shopian, on June 14 from Bardalow Khrew, on July 2 from Rawatpora Delina, on July 8 from Imam Sahab Shopian, on July 24 from Bajren Khrew, on July 25 from Drubjan Dreinar, on August 6 from Kakpora Pulwama and on August 9 from Mahend Bijbehara.

On August 10, two militants escaped from Lajora in Pulwama but under pressure from top, Army put in reinforcement and employed an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Both the militants were spotted and killed in the successful operation witnessed first time in the last one year.

[To be continued tomorrow….]

END

                  Fresh spell of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir
                                                    (1)


In 23 Police districts in J&K, only 3 SPs have operational background

◆ PR, political clout take precedence over merit in Police transfers and appointments

◆ No mainstream politician contests the separatists politically


Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
______

SRINAGAR, Aug 18: When in 2003-04, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed appointed arguably the best of the “operational” SPs as District Police chief in his home district of Anantnag, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari said: “Sir, there can’t be two Ashiqs in Anantnag”. The younger Ashiq was a prominent commander of Hizbul Mujahideen---believed to have developed intimate relationship with some PDP leaders. “OK, you have your way”, Chief Minister is said to have retorted to the SP. Next couple of weeks witnessed the dreaded militant die in an encounter. It was followed by a chain of operations. By the time Mufti’s successor Ghulam Nabi Azad shifted Bukhari to Budgam, Anantnag and its adjoining areas had been completely cleared of the armed insurgency.

Call it irony or paradox, Mufti’s second tenure 10 years later appears to be a total contrast. In Awantipora, SP Mohammad Irshad is apparently disoriented to plan and execute counterterrorist operations as he has been prematurely shifted from Budgam and dumped in the State’s smallest Police district where he held the same post a decade ago. Consequently, the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba militant Irshad Ganai is calling the shots. In a short span of time---partly in Omar Abdullah’s and partly in Mufti Sayeed’s regime---two modules of LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen have set up so formidable a base in Pulwama-Awantipora belt that it is assuming all the trappings of a “liberated zone”.

This inspite of the fact that headquarters of Army’s counterterrorist Victor Force division is located at Awantipora.

LeT’s commanders like Irshad and Hamza, alongwith the Pakistanis Abu Qasim and Abu Dujana, have established a seemingly impregnable bastion in close vicinity of Awantipora. In rest of the district, Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan has grown as a household name while expanding his organisation with remarkable local recruitment and engaging the security forces in high profile encounters. For the first time, Burhan and his boys are openly operating through Internet---YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etcetera.

Significantly, these summer months last year, entire South Kashmir, including Pulwama and Awantipora, was a hub of the mainstream political activity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s large size hoardings besides BJP’s banners, buntings and flags remained intact for over two months even as the ruling party at the Centre had little fertile ground in the Valley’s saffron zone. PDP, NC and Congress conducted hundreds of well-attended rallies before the Valley witnessed arguably the best held and the least controversial Assembly elections.

Nothing of it is imaginable today. The only massive congregations happen on occasion of Eid and the funeral of a militant killed by security forces. According to Police intelligence reports, over 8,000 people participated in the Namaaz-e-Janazah of Talib Shah, a local militant who died in an encounter with Army at Kakpora on August 6. Again, notwithstanding undeclared curfew, thousands attended a civilian’s funeral who died in a clash with BSF. The paramilitary force opened fire when the residents near Malangpora resorted to heavy stone pelting after the operation at Kakpora concluded.

The second---and so far the last---hub of the year 2015 militancy is in Sopore, in North Kashmir. Here again, SP Qayyum appears to have surrendered considerable ground to the dreaded guerrilla commander Qayyum Najar. Najar’s group has grown so much confident that it had the spine to take direct confrontation with Hizbul Mujahideen supremo and United Jihad Council Chairman Syed Salahuddin. Operating from Pakistance since 1993, Salahuddin has finally announced Qayyum Najar’s expulsion from Hizbul Mujahideen with the allegation that he was behind the series of attacks on the mobile telephony operators. At least 5 persons have died in these guerrilla strikes in the last two months.

Sopore’s parent Police district of Baramulla witnessed appointment of SPs who were known for their political clout, not an operational background. During the NC-Congress government of Omar Abdullah, two of the Cabinet Ministers, namely Taj Mohiuddin and Ghulam Hassan Mir, opposed the proposal of the appointment of an SP in Baramulla on the ground that he belonged to “a particular sect”. The proposal was shelved notwithstanding the fact that the proposed officer was next only to Bukhari in the operational profile and he enjoyed the Chief Minister’s confidence and support. He was dumped in the areas anybody could have handled.

Consequently, a non-operational SP was appointed twice as District Police chief in Baramulla simply for his “merit” of having been a friend and class fellow to then J&K Pradesh Congress Committee head Saifuddin Soz’s son.

Today, out of the 25 Police districts, which include the militancy-free Leh and Kargil, there are only three SPs who have the background of counterterrorist operations or a past stint in Special Operations Group (SOG). They are the much demoralised Mohammad Irshad in Awantipora and Ghulam Jeelani in Handwara besides Dr Haseeb Mughal in Rajouri.

“Even two of them in Valley do not work hard on counterterrorism front. Every time, there remains the apprehension of a civilian casualty in an operation. Once it happens, nobody is expected to come to the Police officers’ rescue. They are left to fend for themselves. There are inquiries, suspensions, attachments and even arrests. Why should anybody take such a risk?” said an officer who has extensive experience of counterterrorist operations. “The result is that the militancy is gaining its lost ground fast”, he added. According to him, SPs and Dy SPs of SOG background were first removed to insignificant positions by Omar Abdullah ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Many more were removed when Governor ordered a major reshuffle in Police and bureaucracy in January 2015. Rest of them were removed by Mufti’s government.

[To be continued tomorrow. Published in today's STATE TIMES  http://news.statetimes.in/fresh-spell-of-militancy-in-jammu-kashmir-1-in-23-police-districts-only-2-sps-have-operational-background-in-jammu-Kashmir/ ]

END

Constable, civilian killed in Sopore shrine shootout

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

______

SRINAGAR, Aug 18: Unidentified gunmen, widely suspected to be militants, shot dead and disarmed a Constable of an armed wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police in a broad daylight shootout outside a shrine in which a physically handicapped civilian also lost his life on Tuesday.

Director General of Police, K. Rajendra Kumar, told STATE TIMES that Constable Fayaz Ahmad of Indian Reserve Police 13^th battalion, who was a resident of the nearby Wadora village, was on duty outside the shrine of Sheikh Baba Ali Raina---older brother of the 16^th century revered cleric-saint Sultanul Aarifeen Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom, at Tujjar Sharief, 10 Km from Sopore on the road to Kupwara, when two motorcycle-born unidentified youths stopped and opened fire from an AK-47 rifle at 1.00 pm.

The single AK-47 shot pierced through the abdomen of the targeted Policeman and hit a physically handicapped Abdul Rahim Lone of Tujjar. Both of them succumbed to injuries when they were being evacuated to a local hospital. Sixty-year-old Lone used to move around in his wheelchair to collect donations for the shrine.

Police have recovered one AK-47 empty from the spot.

DGP said that the assailants disarmed the targeted Constable and decamped with his Insas rifle. He said that Police have registered a case and started search for the assailants in coordination with security forces.

“It was a guard of five Police personnel there. While Fayaz was on duty outside, his colleagues were inside. By the time they came out, the assailants had vanished into the neighbourhood”, DGP said. Asked if Police or security forces had any clue with regard to the organisational affiliation of the assailants, Rajendra said: “As of now, we have absolutely no clue. We are investigating”.

As of late on Tuesday night, there was no claim of responsibility. Several residents, however, suspected it as the handiwork of a breakaway group of Hizbul Mujahideen, led by the dreaded militant Qayyum Najar and they did not come out with any protest.

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and the Peoples’ Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti condemned the two killings and said in separately issued statement that violence was unacceptable as it had no room in a civilised society.

In his condolence message, Mufti Sayeed said those responsible for such dastardly acts had no respect for human lives. He said spilling blood of innocent persons unravels untold miseries upon the families of the victims. “There is no religion in the world which allows or justifies such inhuman acts where people are gunned down mercilessly in such cruel manner,” he stated. Chief Minister sent his condolences to both the bereaved families.

END

Baig, Karra absent in PDP-BJP Coordination Committee meet
 
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
________
 
SRINAGAR, Aug 18: The much speculated coordination committee meeting of the ruling coalition partners, PDP and BJP, took place here after a long pause even as many of the members were conspicuously absent.
 
Informed sources told STATE TIMES that the meeting began at the Chief Minister’s official residence of Hari Niwas, though the CM lives in the adjoining Fort View guesthouse and he was not scheduled to attend. The proceedings initiated at 7.30 p.m. and lasted for over three hours. Sources said that after the meeting concluded, the participants headed for CM’s residence for dinner, late on Tuesday night. 

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, Minister of Health Lal Singh, Lok Sabha member and J&K State President Jugal Kishore Sharma, Thupstan Chhewang and former MP Shamsher Singh Manhas are the representatives from BJP in the coordination committee. It is headed by Nirmal Singh. PDP President and Lok Sabha member Mehbooba Mufti, Lok Sabha members Muzaffar Hussain and Tariq Hameed Karra, Minister of Education Naeem Akhtar and Minister of Horticulture Abdul Rehman Veeri are the representatives from PDP.
 
However, many of the members, including Baig, Karra, Lal Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma were conspicuously absent in the first round. Efforts to find if any of them later attended were not successful
 
Sources said that Nirmal Singh, Minister of Industries Chander Prakash Ganga, PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, PDP’s MLA and Minister of Law Basharat Bukhari and Minister of Horticulture Abdul Rehman Veeri attended the meeting.
 
Even as none of the participants responded to phone calls from media till late in the night, politicians believed to be privy to the developments said that the meeting discussed the performance of the Ministers and coordination between the partners in the last over five months. Some of the proposed appointments, including those in Backward Classes Commission and State Accountability Commission were reportedly discussed. Cabinet is understood to order a reshuffle in Police and civil administration on the basis of this discussion on Wednesday. 

Besides the agenda of cabinet other important issues including the ongoing development works in the state as well as overall security situation in the aftermath of the recent militant attacks were also discussed, sources said.
 
END

Constable, civilian killed in Sopore shrine shootout

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

______

SRINAGAR, Aug 18: Unidentified gunmen, widely suspected to be militants, shot dead and disarmed a Constable of an armed wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police in a broad daylight shootout outside a shrine in which a physically handicapped civilian also lost his life on Tuesday.

Director General of Police, K. Rajendra Kumar, told STATE TIMES that Constable Fayaz Ahmad of Indian Reserve Police 13^th battalion, who was a resident of the nearby Wadora village, was on duty outside the shrine of Sheikh Baba Ali Raina---older brother of the 16^th century revered cleric-saint Sultanul Aarifeen Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom, at Tujjar Sharief, 10 Km from Sopore on the road to Kupwara, when two motorcycle-born unidentified youths stopped and opened fire from an AK-47 rifle at 1.00 pm.

The single AK-47 shot pierced through the abdomen of the targeted Policeman and hit a physically handicapped Abdul Rahim Lone of Tujjar. Both of them succumbed to injuries when they were being evacuated to a local hospital. Sixty-year-old Lone used to move around in his wheelchair to collect donations for the shrine.

Police have recovered one AK-47 empty from the spot.

DGP said that the assailants disarmed the targeted Constable and decamped with his Insas rifle. He said that Police have registered a case and started search for the assailants in coordination with security forces.

“It was a guard of five Police personnel there. While Fayaz was on duty outside, his colleagues were inside. By the time they came out, the assailants had vanished into the neighbourhood”, DGP said. Asked if Police or security forces had any clue with regard to the organisational affiliation of the assailants, Rajendra said: “As of now, we have absolutely no clue. We are investigating”.

As of late on Tuesday night, there was no claim of responsibility. Several residents, however, suspected it as the handiwork of a breakaway group of Hizbul Mujahideen, led by the dreaded militant Qayyum Najar and they did not come out with any protest.

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and the Peoples’ Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti condemned the two killings and said in separately issued statement that violence was unacceptable as it had no room in a civilised society.

In his condolence message, Mufti Sayeed said those responsible for such dastardly acts had no respect for human lives. He said spilling blood of innocent persons unravels untold miseries upon the families of the victims. “There is no religion in the world which allows or justifies such inhuman acts where people are gunned down mercilessly in such cruel manner,” he stated. Chief Minister sent his condolences to both the bereaved families.

END