Three Ministers in SAC’s dock over fresh charges of corruption, raising huge assets

CS asked to provide details of all politicians enjoying status of Minister/MoS by September 28

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 23: State’s highest accountability watchdog, Jammu & Kashmir State Accountability Commission (SAC), has received complaints, containing serious allegations, against two Ministers and one particular politician, enjoying the status of a Minister in Omar Abdullah’s coalition government. While as the complaints against the two Ministers have been forwarded to them for their respective comments, third one concerning a prominent politician has been treated with a difference. SAC has asked Chief Secretary Madhav Lal to provide details about all the politicians of the ruling coalition who are not in Chief Minister’s 22-member Council of Ministers but are enjoying the status of a Minister or Minister of State.

Resuming its functioning after suspended animation of over three years, SAC has entertained complaints against both the Ministers and forwarded the same to them for their respective comments. One of them, according to informed sources, has returned the document with a detailed response in defence. Commission is now examining the Minister’s response in light of the complaints and awaiting a statement from another respondent. The complainants have sought action against the two Ministers while being knowledgeable that they would be liable to punishment under the law in case their accusations against the public men proved to be motivated or unfounded.

SAC has initiated action over the complaints without publicly revealing identities and specific contents as desired by the amended law in anticipation of commencement of a regular inquiry.

Early Times, however, learned from authoritative sources that all the three complaints against the coalition functionaries have been taken seriously by the lately revived SAC. On the direction of Chairman, Justice (retd) Y P Nargotra, and Member, Justice (retd) Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain, Registrar of SAC today sent a letter to Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, asking for names of the politicians holding status of Minister or MoS, emoluments, perks and other facilities available to them, rules and regulations governing appointment of such government functionaries besides procedure and criteria, if any, adopted for conferment of status of Minister/MoS on the politicians who are not otherwise members of the Council of Ministers.

Chief Secretary has been directed to furnish complete information by or before September 28^th.

Dealing with the third fresh complaint, concerning a politician who has been holding status of a Minister, SAC is understood to be obtaining details about all the eight politicians of the NC-Congress coalition government enjoying this privilege. There are currently 22 members in Omar Abdullah’s Council of Ministers who are all on oath. Two slots, each belonging to NC and Congress in the power sharing arrangement, have been continuously vacant since 2009.

Congress party’s MLA from Inderwal and high profile Minister of Works, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, had been removed in the middle of last year when CBI began investigating charges of his daughter having hired an outsider for appearing in a competitive examination to ensure her selection for MBBS. Anticipating clean chit to Saroori---that could lead to his re-induction---Congress has not insisted over replacement in the last one year.

Under a law amended during Ghulam Nabi Azad’s regime, total strength of the Council of Ministers has to be 25 in Jammu and Kashmir. However, Omar government has conferred status of Minister/MoS on as many as eight politicians. NC’s MLA from Iddgah, Mubarak Gul, is the only among eight who is holding the superior status of a cabinet Minister since August 2009. He stands designated as “Advisor to Chief Minister”.

NC’s MLC from Jammu, Devinder Singh Rana, who was appointed as “Political Advisor to Chief Minister” a day after Omar Abdullah assumed office on January 5^th, 2009, has been holding the status of a Minister of State.

Making amendments in law, Omar government also deleted few other positions from the list of Office of Profit to protect its legislators from disqualification. Senior Congress leader and former MLA/MLC, Khem Lata Wakhloo, who functioned as a Cabinet Minister in Ghulam Mohammad Shah’s government in 1984-86, was appointed as Chairperson J&K State Social Welfare Advisory on 28-10-2010. Order of her appointment did not mention her status but bureaucratic sources insist that she was offered status of MoS which she declined to accept. She has been struggling to seek status of a Cabinet Minister with the plea that she had functioned as a Cabinet Minister in 1984-86 and is not working under any other authority, unlike several Vice Chairpersons of statutory boards.

NC’s MLA from Habbakadal, Shameema Firdaus, was appointed as Chaiperson of J&K State Women’s Commission on 19-01-2010. She too has been holding status of MoS.

NC’s former MLA from Surankote and one-time MoS in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s government in 1996-2002, Mushtaq Ahmad Shah Bukhari was appointed Vice Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir State Advisory Board for Welfare and Development of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) on 19-01-2010. He too enjoys status of MoS.

NC’s incumbent MLA from Kalakote, Rachhpal Singh, was appointed as Vice Chairman of J&K State Advisory Board for the Development of Kissans on 19-01-2010. He too was conferred status of MoS.

Congress party’s Smt Swaran Lata was appointed as Vice Chairperson, J&K State Advisory Board for Welfare and Development of Schedule Castes on 10-02-2010. Same party’s Kuldeep Raj was appointed as Vice Chairman Jammu and Kashmir State Advisory Board for Welfare and Development of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) on 15-02-2011. Neither of them is a member of J&K Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council. Both are holding status of MoS.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah himself has been functioning as Chairman of the Boards operated by Mushtaq Bukhari, Rachhpal Singh, Swaran Lata and Kuldeep Raj.

END

We’ll recommend J&K’s solution within Indian Constitution: Padgoankar

After 11 months of equivocation, interlocutors uncover themselves to the best of Delhi’s liking in Srinagar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 21: This autumnal equinox has come with veritable change of colour among the Centre’s interlocutors who raised speculations of an “out of box” solution for the last eleven months of their academic picnic but wrapped up their Mission Kashmir today to the best of their masters’ liking. Head of the three-member team, Dileep Padgaonkar, made it unambiguously clear that the final report, to be submitted to union Home Minister P Chidambaram before October 12^th, would recommend solution to the political problem of Jammu and Kashmir “within the framework of the (Indian) Constitution”.

Hours before concluding their 11-month-long study tour and interaction with stakeholders---remarkably without any separatist leader’s involvement---Centre’s interlocutors, Dileep Padgoankar, Radha Kumar and M M Ansari, made it clear at their news conference that their report to New Delhi would recommend a solution to the political problem of Jammu and Kashmir “within the framework of the (Indian) Constitution”. “Any solution outside the Constitution is impossible and impracticable. Not only people across the country but also majority of the state subjects in all three regions want a solution within the framework of the Constitution. That’s what we are recommending in our report”, principal interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar said.

Padgoankar asserted that solution to the political problem would have to be in conformity with the aspirations of the people of entire Jammu and Kashmir state. He claimed that solution to all problems within the Indian Constitution was the aspiration of almost all the people in Jammu and Ladakh regions besides a reasonable majority in Kashmir valley. He revealed that his team would submit the final report to the Centre before October 12^th next---shortly before completing its one-year life.

The interlocutors said that there were many ways and means to satisfy the economic, developmental, social and cultural aspirations of the people living in different regions of the state but the political problem would have to be addressed on an all-inclusive basis and with regard to aspirations of the majority of the state subjects. They claimed that during their numerous visits to all three regions of the state and interaction with cross-sections of the population, they observed that most of the people wanted a solution within the framework of the Constitution.

Without indicating treatment to any of the proposals and formulae---including the much speculated Greater Autonomy of National Conference and Self Rule of PDP--- Padgoankar made it clear that the interlocutors’ final report would not recommend division or trifurcation of the state. He said that he and his colleagues were convinced that sovereignty and integrity of the state was a fait accompli and there was no question of breaking it into different administrative units. He, however, suggested that delegation of more powers to the state would satisfy the aspiration of a large number of people.

When it was pointed out to the interlocutors that none of the separatist leaders had interacted with them---excluding a dramatic meeting imposed on Maulvi Abbas Ansari at his home---they asserted that the separatists had “lost a valuable opportunity”. They claimed that they had made best of their efforts to rope in the Hurriyat and other separatist leaders, and also offered them every convenience of meeting, but it was unfortunate that they did not respond positively. Padgoankar suggested that all through the period, Hurriyat and other separatist outfits laboured under “compulsions”. He declined to elaborate.

Padgoankar claimed credit for the change Kashmir witnessed in the last one year. According to him, this total transformation, in sharp contrast to turbulent summer of 2010, was attributable to New Delhi’s decision of sending a team of interlocutors to Jammu and Kashmir. He pointed out that during this period Panchayat elections of the highest ever peoples’ participation had been conducted smoothly in Jammu and Kashmir and all-time high tourist traffic had been recorded in the state. Padgoankar’s statement is expected to evoke a strongly negative reaction from all hues of Kashmiri separatists who have been alleging from day one that it was all “part of an Indian exercise to hoodwink the world over Kashmir problem”.

END

Social Welfare feeding poison to Anganwari kids

Food samples in all 10 medical blocks found adulterated in Budgam

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 20: Indicating a nexus between the suppliers and officials of Social Welfare Department, samples of the food items provided to thousands of young children at Anganwari Centers have been found adulterated in all 1o medical blocks in Budgam district. Rather than initiating criminal proceedings against the suppliers and assessing culpability of the officials, authorities in Drug and Food Control Organisation are said to be hushing up the matters.

Parents of hundreds of children at 1500 Anganwari Centres in Budgam district had been crying hoarse since beginning of the current year that substandard and adulterated supplies were being received by officials and delivered at AW centres. According to them, nutrients and food components were being circulated to over 30,000 children without any examination or analysis by the experts.

In the face of a public outcry, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Budgam directed all the 10 Block Medical Officers in April to pick up random samples at different AW centres and get them examined by food analysts. Since the overwhelming complaints mentioned three particular items, authorities collected samples of only Priya Gold biscuits, turmeric powder and skimmed milk. Within days, Public Analyst at Public Health Laboratory, Dalgate, alerted the concerned Food Inspectors and BMOs that all the samples analysed had been found adulterated and harmful for human consumption.

BMO Magam wrote to Project Officer ICDS Narbal vide letter No: BMOM/3536-39 Dated 15-07-2011: “The sample was sent to Public Analyst, Public Health Lab Dalgate Srinagar for analysis and the said sample was declared adulterated vide report No: PFAK/Legal/2161 Dated 06/07/2011, copy of which is enclosed herewith”.

He added: “It is therefore requested to your goodself that to communicate complete information within 07 days regarding name and address of the supplier/distributor/manufacturer alongwith bill/invoice who has supplied the adulterated spray dried milk Madhusagar brand to ICDS-CDPO Narbal. The matter may be taken as most urgent so that the sanction of prosecution is obtained under section-20 of PFA Act-1954”.

Public Analyst Hamidullah Dar observed different impurities and adulterations in others samples including biscuits (Priya Gold) and turmeric powder. Vide a number of reports, all in possession of Early Times, he alerted all BMOs in Budgam district that the food items being consumed by young children at AW centres had been found adulterated and were dangerous for human consumption.

Even as the Public Analyst, CMO Budgam and different BMOs asked Project Officers of all 8 ICDS blocks to immediately stop the supplies and remove all those already delivered at AW centres, officials of Social Welfare Department did not act until sizable quantities were fed to the children in the months of April, May, June and July. Later, the left-over supplies were removed in the months of July and August. Even the analysis procedure at the Public Laboratory took three to four weeks in absence of persuasion from Social Welfare Department.

One of such communications from Legal Health Authority Nagam, Chadoura, vide No: BMO/N 1065-67 Dated 25-07-2011, made it clear to CDPO Nagam/Chadoura that the supplies were harmful: “The Analyst reports of the food samples found adulterated by Public Analyst Kashmir Province. In this connection, you are as such directed to instruct your Anganwari Workers to stop consumption of adulterated food stuff which are not fit for human consumption and prevent any untoward incident in the area”.

BMO Chattergam wrote a similar letter, No; LHA/BCH/24-27 Dated 09-08-2011, to Project Officer ICDS BK Pora, Chattergam.

Officials at Directorate of Health Services Kashmir revealed to this newspaper that a large number of children developed multiple complicacies allegedly due to consumption of adulterated food items at AW centres and most of them were treated either locally at home or at different dispensaries, PHCs and District Hospital of Budgam. However, a separate record of such cases was not maintained.

Sources said that CMO Budgam finally asked Assistant Controller Food of Drug & Food Control Organisation, vide his No: CMOB/2355-56 Dated 19-08-2011, to take legal action against the delinquent suppliers. He, however, did not call for identification of the culpability of the officials of Social Welfare Department whose complicity or careless had led to passage of adulterated supplies to AW stores/ centres and finally consumption by young children.

Director Social Welfare Department, Kashmir, Hilal Ahmad Parray, as well as Programme Officer ICDS Budgam district, Nazir Ahmad Khwaja, maintained that “some items at some centres” had been found adulterated which, according to them, were “removed and replaced immediately”. Officials of Health and Social Welfare departments held each other responsible for verification of the standards of the nutrition items before their passage to AW centres. DC Budgam happens to be the Chairman of District Level Purchase Committee (DLPC) and Programme Officer is the Member/Secretary of the flagship central scheme in social welfare sector.

DC Budgam, Mohammad Rafi, admitted that there was no foolproof system to pre-examine the supplies before their delivery at AW centres. He said that as Chairman of the DLPC his responsibility was limited to procurement of supplies from genuine and reputed suppliers. The job of examining the quality and quantity of the supplies, according to him, was that of the officials of Social Welfare Department.

With everybody passing the buck and the Food & Drug Control Organisation sleeping over the serious matter, Minister incharge Social Welfare, Sakeena Itoo, told Early Times that she would call for a detailed report from Director and District Officer and accordingly initiate necessary legal and departmental action in the serious lapse. “I’m already seized of the matter and I have asked my subordinate officers to send me a detailed report. If anybody is found responsible of lapse or indulgence in corruption, I will take strict action”, she asserted.

END

Sardar Attique denied cross-LoC travel permit

Another former PoK ‘Prime Minister’ Sultan Mehmood travels via Delhi

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 17: Even as Government of India has not permitted former PoK ‘Prime Minister’ Sardar Attique Khan and his 24-member entourage to travel from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar in their own fleet of vehicles, another PoK ‘Prime Minister’ of the past, Barrister Sultan Mehmood Choudhary, today arrived in New Delhi from Lahore by air. Both the politicians, as also a number of other legislators and Ministers, were scheduled to attend marriage ceremony of the son of a Srinagar-based businessman Zahoor Wattali on September 19^th.

Barrister Sultan, who functioned as “Prime Minister of Azad Jammu & Kashmir” from 1996 to 2001 reached New Delhi by air from Lahore today. He was received at Indira Gandhi International Airport by Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik and other staff of the High Commission. After staying at Malik’s residence for a night, Barrister Sultan would leave for Srinagar on Sunday. Even as a many politicians, including former Ministers from Srinagar and Muzaffarabad have visited each other's sides in the past, it is for the first time since 1947 that a former head of the government would be visiting the other side of the Line of Control in the Jammu and Kashmir territories divided between India and Pakistan. Former Chief Justice of 'Azad J&K Supreme Court' Syed Manzoor Gilani, who is a resident of Karnah area of Kashmir and has previously visited the Valley, is also one of Wattali's high profile guests who has already arrived in Srinagar alongwith some members of his family.

Speaking to Early Times from the Pakistani High Commissioner’s residence, Barrister Sultan revealed that he was traveling “all alone”. He said that he had conveyed his desire to travel to Srinagar to Pakistani and Indian officials few days back. “It was late last evening that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad called me and advised me to file an online application for visa. It was granted within two hours. I will be reaching Srinagar at 1230 hours tomorrow and staying there for three days before leaving back for Lahore by air in the evening on September 21^st”, Barrister Sultan said.

Barrister Sultan has represented Mirpur constituency in AJK Assembly for several years since 1983 and also functioned as ‘Prime Minister’ parallel to Dr Farooq Abdullah’s 1996-2002 term as Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir. He has been AJK chapter President of Pakistan Peoples Party. In August 2011 Assembly elections, he was yet again returned from the politically hypersensitive Mirpur constituency. He said that it was his first ever visit to India and Srinagar. He revealed that he had been granted a city-specific visa for only Delhi and Srinagar and, thus, he would not be traveling to any other destination like Agra and Ajmer---most sought after by the Pakistanis.

Asked if he was planning to interact with any of the separatist or mainstream politicians or government functionaries in Srinagar, Barrister Sultan told Early Times that his meetings with some political leaders were “well possible”. He said that he was on a purely private tour but would not hesitate to meet any of the separatist or mainstream politicians. “I am told, most of them would be the guests at the wedding I am attending”, he said.

This newspaper learned from well-placed sources that Barrister Sultan was offered official hospitality and the state protocol, including boarding and lodging at a VVIP guest house by Omar Abdullah government. He, however, preferred to stay either at his host Zahoor Wattali’s house at Baghat Barzullah or a private hotel on Maulana Azad Road.

Wattali is a prominent businessman, who was close to Yasin Malik’s JKLF and late Abdul Gani Lone’s Peoples Conference for several beginning years of Kashmir militancy. Then “Chief Commander” of JKLF, Yasin Malik was for the first time arrested by security forces from his home in the middle of 1990.

Later, Wattali maintained an equilibrium of relations with the Indian and Pakistani authorities. Large number of separatist as well as mainstream politicians, including several Ministers, had attended marriage ceremony of his elder son in 2007. While as his elder brother, Ali Mohammad Wattali, retired as DIG of Kashmir, followed by Member of J&K State Public Service Commission, his nephew Shafqat Wattali is currently DIG of South Kashmir.

Informed sources revealed that on the advice from Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, Regional Passport Officer of Srinagar has denied cross-LoC travel permit to another former PoK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Khan and his entire entourage of 24 family members and party colleagues. Sources said that Sardar Attique and his colleagues were advised to travel on visa via Lahore-Delhi-Srinagar but he declined to travel on Passport and Visa and insisted on traveling Muzzafarabad-Srinagar-Muzaffarabad in his own cavalcade. “There was a technical hitch in that as there is no such protocol regime between India and Pakistan”, MEA sources in New Delhi said.

They confirmed that J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had taken up the matter with the Centre and recommended strongly that Sardar Attique and his entourage be permitted to travel in their own motorcade but he could not be obliged “for a host of reasons, including a close deadline”. With this, Omar Abdullah’s efforts to arrange Sardar Attique’s visit in Pakistan-registered vehicles have failed.

Leader of Muslim Conference, Sardar Attique has functioned as Prime Minister and MLA in PoK while his nonagenarian father, Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, has served several times as Prime Minister and President of PoK. Kashmiri separatist circles call him “Mujahid-e-Awwal” (the first freedom fighter) on account of his being the first person who had picked up arms to dethrone Maharaja Hari Singh in the middle of 1940s in Mirpur-Muzaffarabad territories. However, Sardar Qayoom has attained the profile of a moderate politician in the last over 15 years and even publicly criticized gun culture.

END

Shutdown but little tension over Uni’s death in Sopore

Battle on appletown continues in 22^nd year; Police say 20 fresh recruits came in recently; Search on for Muz Maulvi, Akash Badar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SOPORE, Sep 16: Arguably nothing better than Abdullah Uni’s death would have marked completion of the first zero-casualty year for Jammu and Kashmir Police. As many as 18 civilians and a Constable died in different clashes between demonstrators and Police/paramilitary forces when thousands of Kashmiris came out on streets on September 13^th, 2010, to protest a sacrilegious incident that had happened in United States of America. That brought number of the civilians killed in street demonstrations, clashes and arson during turbulent summer of 2010 to 114. Nobody died in such clashes from September 14, 2010 to September 14, 2011 anywhere in Kashmir valley.

Shops in the north Kashmir business hub remained shut for three days as a mark of tribute to the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terror Abdullah Uni. If Police are to be believed, Uni was “simply a brand name of terror” who did everything on gun point and was in immoral relationship with over a dozen young women, including his hideout owner Tariq Kakru’s daughter Tabbasum. But, quite a number of residents extol him as a “great warrior” who, they insist, had “unnerved the Indian Army” for over six years. “He had killed dozens of soldiers and officers and had escaped leisurely from over a dozen of military operations”, says College student Syed Junaid.

People of varied shades of opinion have, nevertheless, consensus on one point: Uni’s death would prove to be a turning point in Sopore. Few others are unfazed by his death.

“We have seen many turning points. Army and Police claimed to have conquered Sopore several times in the last 22 years of our freedom movement. Their first claim came in November 1993 when they used tanks, killed 18 militants and trumpeted that Sopore had been conquered back. Every pause of calm was followed by a fresh spell of militancy”, said a school-teacher, insisting to hide his identity. He is sure that some other militant would soon emerge as an icon, for many years to come. “It will continue until Kashmir wins freedom”, he observed and asserted that nobody’s death, not even that of iconic Geelani, would break the “freedom struggle”.

Nevertheless, there are tell-tale signs of change, when compared to 1993. For all three days of mourning, passenger transport operated without fear or hindrance. Faces from streets to orchards looked relieved, if not jubilant.

“Uni was a dreaded killer. He would eliminate people on mere suspicion. With his blood-letting, he ruined dozens of poor families. This entire shutdown is because of the fear of his associates, who are no less merciless”, said a resident of Muslim Pir locality, again hiding his name. He narrated how Uni and his associates kidnapped and gunned down two young daughters of a poor labour earlier this year.

Suddenly, gunshots are heard around Bus Stand, not far away from SP’s office. Commandoes, who rushed in bullet-proof Jeeps with alacrity, returned soon. They learned from local vendors that Uni’s local associate, Muz Maulvi, had come close to a CRPF camp and run away after firing few shots from his pistol in the air. “He wanted to enforce shutdown. Our boys spotted him escape but we won’t let him set our track. We are confident to get Muz Maulvi as well as Akash Badar in a month if they chose to stay in town”, said a Police official.

SP Sopore, Imtiyaz Mir, however, cautioned that it was a little longer drawn battle. “We have credible information about entry of 20 fresh recruits in Rafiabad-Dooru-Warpora belt. Few of them have come in from Lolab and are staying in Imbarzalwari forests, few others are in Rafiabad. But we are sure to get a decisive victory by the middle of next year”, he asserted. “Police will succeed only if it gets support and cooperation from different quarters---its own leadership, political leaders, intelligentsia, media, judiciary”. He breaks to respond to a cellphone call. An officer of the rank of IGP asks him from Srinagar to release a youth, involved in four incidents of attacks on Police, stone pelting and arson!

For everybody at District Police Office, another Eid has come within 15 days. DGP, Kuldeep Khoda, and IGP, SM Sahai, drove all the way to Sopore in the forenoon to decorate the men who had removed the icon of terror carrying reward of Rs 10 to 30 Lakhs on his head. Nearly 20 personnel were either promoted to next ranks or regularized as Followers and Constables. Boys engaged as SPOs for Rs 3,000 a month would get salary of Rs 13,000 to 15,000 from this month. They had all packs of sweets in their hands and tears of joy in their eyes.

Marks of Uni’s spectacular strikes are still engraved on a many walls around. His bullets killed former SP Altaf Khan’s bodyguard on the entrance of Police Station. Khan himself had a close shave in three to four attacks. Uni’s rifle grenades fell on the compounds of fortified buildings in the highest security zone. Police offices, BSNL installations and senior Congress leader Ghulam Rasool Kar’s house are just few of his staple targets.

One of Uni’s rockets has ripped the cantilever RCC slab and missed the window of SP’s bedroom by inches. The sight is still frightening---notwithstanding rows of BP Gypsies, Rakhshaks, bunkers, pillboxes and crates of Concertina wire woven in all directions.

[Concluded]

END

Sopore: From loved Majid Dar to dreaded Abdullah Uni

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SOPORE, Sep 15: Many of Sopore’s stone pelters and militants of the day were not born when troops destroyed scores of residential houses and business establishments on January 6^th, 1993. Some of them would have been zero to four years old and thus learned only from their parents or elder siblings how BSF soldiers ran amok after a militant attack and massacred nearly 50 civilians in the famous apple town.

While we kept waiting for the VIPs from New Delhi---Ghulam Nabi Azad, Makhan Lal Fotedar and Ghulam Rasool Kar---and Governor’s Advisor incharge Home, Lt Gen Mehmood Ahmad Zaki on January 8th, one of the young officers of Army said candidly: “We’ll never regain Sopore as long as Majid Dar lives”. “Why?” asked we about the legendary guerrilla who operated as then formidable Hizbul Mujahideen’s “Military Advisor”. “He does not tolerate even a minor misbevaiour of his cadres with the masses”. The Major went on to elaborate that security forces used to get 80 percent of the information free often from those harmed, harassed or humiliated by militants. Less than 20 percent, he said, would flow from paid informants.

Very few, drawn from a couple of neighbourhoods in the curfewed town, confirmed what the officer said inside the office of the Principal of Government Degree College, Mohammad Abdullah Charoo. Charoo, a Baramulla resident, who was years later elevated to the position of Chairman of J&K State Board of School Education, confirmed every word of the Army officer.

Notwithstanding grapevine of his ultimately falling into the trap of the Indian intelligence, Dar commanded respect not only in hometown Sopore but also in his organisation headed by Syed Salah-ud-din in Pakistan. He was never arrested until he was gunned down, allegedly by Salahuddin loyalists, a day before he was to have left for Pakistan. Even his passion for looking young, and his controversial second marriage to a relative failed, to lower his prestige.

One of his Sudanese fighters, namely Ibni Masood, and the Afghan warlord Gulbadeen Hikmatyar’s bodyguard Akbar Bhai shot into prominence for high-precision rocket attacks on paramilitary camps in the “liberated town” but nobody shared Dar’s legend. Call it fear or irony, less than 800 people participated in his lackluster funeral in Noorbagh locality on March 21, 2003. Almost all of Dar’s loyalists in the Hizbul leadership, including Farooq Mirchal and Commander Masood Tantray, were later eliminated, or got eliminated, one by one. His widow, Dr Shameema Badroo, was left incapacitated in one attack. With media and politicians on its side, Hizb succeeded in silently making a many believe that Dar and his group had been assigned by New Delhi to take over the organisation. Still, Hizb seemed to have died its death in Sopore with Dar’s in 2003.

Eighteen years after the worst massacre in town, Sopore is yet again in news---this time for killing of another legendary militant, Abdullah Uni. This 27-year-old from Pakistani Punjab gained as much influence as Dar did but for completely converse reasons. People in Sopore knew Uni as chief of the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in J&K, though there was nothing official from the outfit till he was given a clean chit in the assassination of cleric-politician Maulana Shaukat Shah last fortnight. Even the letter addressed to Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith chief investigation panel did not reveal Uni’s status in the organisation.

On account of his six-year-long operations, Uni too became a legend in Sopore. He was indisputably responsible for reorganizing LeT and reviving the insurgency that had been apparently decisively wiped out three times in the last 12 years. Uni survived dozens of spectacular operations conducted by two Kashmiri Muslim SPs in the last 5 years. Thirty-three militants got killed and over a hundred arrested during the period Imtiyaz Hussain Mir functioned as head of Sopore Police. His successor and 1999 KPS batch mate, Altaf Khan, got 37 killed and scores arrested. Escaping successfully from over a dozen cordon-and-search operations, killer of many soldiers, including a Major, Uni continued to expand his base in the apple-rich expanse.

Uni showed no mercy for his suspects. Believing him behind almost every single civilian killing in the last four to five years, victims of his terror privately referred to him as Abdullah Khuni. He escaped for many reasons. Even senior Police officials admit that Army was “excessively” scared of Uni as he had jumped out two or three times while firing indiscriminately in a daredevil fashion. Death of an officer in one of such encounters intensified fear among troops. Imtiyaz Mir, who has been brought back as SP of Sopore last month, revealed that he did not disclose Uni’s identification to Army till the state’s most wanted militant was killed in the gunbattle.

“We feared that it could have a psychological effect. We were well on his track for the last over one month. We had crystal clear information that Uni was present at the house of his wife, Tabbasum, but we held it strictly to our chest till he was fatally hit”, Mir narrated. He further revealed that Uni had also succeeded to hide as he communicated neither through phone nor radio. According to Engineer-turned-SP Imtiyaz Mir, Uni was in touch with his high command and associates only through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) operated by a foreign company. He was last time publicly spotted while carrying a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba flag, alongwith his Pakistani associate Akash Badar, in the separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s rally on occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr on August 31^st.

[To be concluded]

LeT’s J&K chief Abdullah Uni killed in Sopore

Killer of 15, including a Maj, Uni had escaped from 12 cordons in 10 years

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 13: On completion of the first zero-casualty year, Jammu and Kashmir Police, alongwith Army, got a remarkable achievement today when J&K ‘Commander-in-Chief’ of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Azhar Malik alias Abdullah Uni, died in a gunbattle in Sopore township of Baramulla district. Believed to be responsible for scores of guerrilla operations and killing of at least 15 people, including a Major, Uni had escaped from over a dozen cordon-and-search operations in north Kashmir in the last 9 years.

SP Sopore, Imtiyaz Hussain Mir, told Early Times that elimination of Azhar Malik S/o Riyaz Malik of Multan, Pakistan, who operated with the code name of Abdullah Uni in Kashmir since 2002, was the highest priority target for Police and security forces in Sopore. According to Police records, Uni had operated in Kupwara district from 2002 to 2007. Thereafter, he established a strong base in Sopore and re-organised his group with mobilization of dozens of long surviving guerrillas and fresh recruits.

Uni had planned and executed dozens of successful operations against Police and security forces. Believed to be directly responsible for at least 15 killings--- including that of a Major and two sisters in Sopore and also murder of prominent cleric-politician Maulana Shaukat Ahmed Shah---Abdullah Uni had successfully escaped from over a dozen cordon-and-search operations of Police and armed forces in the last nine years.

SP Sopore revealed that with the help of meticulously planted informants, Police learned late last night that Uni was expected to stay for a night at the residential house of one Tariq Ahmad at Baghat Batpora, close to Degree College in Sopore. As usual, inmates had kept a rear window open which had been identified as Uni’s entry point into the house. Reports pouring in to Police from the neighbourhood described Tariq’s daughter Tabbasum as “either wife or girlfriend” of the Lashkar chief. Some of these reports insisted that the young woman had also delivered a baby at Lal Ded Hospital in Srinagar last year.

At around 0900 hours today, Sopore Police, alongwith some units of Rashtriya Rifles 22 Bn, swooped on the locality situated on the northern bank of river Jhelum. During the cordon-and-search operation, Uni scampered out of Tariq’s house and took shelter in an abandoned house. Police and forces zeroed in on the hideout at 1130 hours. Uni lobbed at least six hand grenades and also opened fire from his AK-47 rifle. SP Sopore said that without suffering any collateral damage, Police and Army gunned down Uni when he made his first attempt to escape from the cordoned area. He died on the compound. One AK-47 rifle and one Chinese pistol were recovered from his possession.

SP Sopore said that Police were still in search of Uni’s communication devices and documents but nothing of the sort had been spotted or recovered till late tonight. He said that none of the civilians in the neighbourhood or inmates of Uni’s hideout had been taken into custody for questioning. “But, we will have to interrogate few people, including a woman, to find Uni’s contacts and associates”, Imtiyaz Mir said. He described Uni’s death in the daytime gunfight as the most spectacular achievement of last several years for Police and armed forces. “We are now fully confident to yet again eliminate the last remains of militancy in Sopore in next two or three months”, SP Sopore added.

Director General of J&K Police, Kuldeep Khoda, confirmed to Early Times that Abdullah Uni was Lashar-e-Tayyiba head in J&K and the state’s most wanted militant. He said that Uni was responsible for reviving militancy in Sopore-Kupwara-Bandipore belt of north-eastern Kashmir. DGP and other senior Police officials maintained that Uni had killed over a dozen of people, including a Major and two daughters of a poor labour in Sopore. They claimed that Uni had, among other of LeT’s operations, also planned and ordered killing of Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith chief Maulana Shaukat Shah in a bomb blast in Srinagar on April 8^th this year.

With intermittent civilian killings by suspected militants, guerrilla attacks on Police and armed forces, Sopore had emerged as a hub of revived insurgency in the last two years. Dreaded militants, including over a dozen foreigners, had established their writ on the apple rich township since middle of 2009 even after Police and forces had uprooted militancy and made it a guerrilla-free area in 2007-08. Sopore also happens to be significant on account of being residential locality of Kashmir’s topmost radical leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

END