Another Hurriyat (G) activist shot dead in Sopore

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, June 12: In the second consecutive strike on the separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's associates in his home constituency of Sopore, unidentified assassins shot dead a young shopkeeper on Friday night.

Official sources, quoting eyewitness accounts, told State Times that two unidentified persons appeared at Bomai, 12 km from Sopore, and shot dead 28-year-old Khursheed Ahmad Bhat son of Ghulam Nabi Bhat, in close vicinity of his home st 8.00 pm. Residents and family members rushed him to hospital where doctors declared him 'brought dead'. According to the doctors, three pistol shots had been pumped into Bhat’s head.

Residents said that Bhat was a known activist of Geelani-led faction of the Hurriyat Conference. Significantly, on Tuesday last, unidentified gunmen had shot dead prominent Hurriyat (Geelani) activist Sheikh Altaf-ur-Rehman close to his residence in Sopore town in broad daylight.

Geelani, as also Hizbul Mujahideen supremo and United Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin, had strongly condemned Sheikh's killing and held "Indian secret agencies" responsible for his assassination. Hizb chief even threatened to punish Sheikh’s killers. Geelani called for a protest shutdown in Baramulla district on Wednesday and asked the Kashmiris all over the valley to hold funeral prayers on Friday for the slain separatist activist who had served several terms of detention under Public Safety Act and functioned as a member of the Executive Committee of Geelani's Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. Sheikh’s father, a former militant of Hizbul Mujahideen, is currently Sopore zonal head of Jamaat-e-Islami.

Remarkably, Sheikh’s assassination was the first killing of an anti-India and pro-Pakistan activist in Sopore area in the last several years. All other civilians killed in similar incident of target fire by unidentified gunmen carried the tag of anti - Pakistan and pro-India. Bhat’s killing on Friday comes as the second assassination of its kind. Previously, unidentified gunmen, claiming to be the cadres of a new guerrilla group "Lashkar-e-Islam", carried out several attacks on the civilians who defied the outfit’s diktat of closing down mobile phone networking towers and recharge outlets. Two civilians were killed and five more left injured in these terror attacks.

Meanwhile, during a protest against Sheikh’s killing on Geelani’s call on Friday, masked men waved two Pakistani and one ISIS flag at Jamia Masjid in downtown Srinagar which is the religious seat of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the head of another faction of Hurriyat Conference.

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DGP, Geelani threaten to ‘expose’ Sopore terrorists

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Jun 11: Notwithstanding the senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s claim that none other than the “Indian secret agencies” were behind the burgeoning terrorism, Director General of Police K. Rajendra Kumar is going to claim that all the recent acts of harassment and bloodletting were the handiwork of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Sopore unit.

While touring the North Kashmir townships of Sopore, Baramulla, Handwara and Kupwara, DGP on Thursday told mediapersons that the Police had got “vital leads” on the identity and activities of the armed group that had spread a wave of terror with guerrilla attacks and civilian killings in Sopore area in the last two weeks. “Within the period of two days, Police will make the facts public before press. We have restored the communication system and arrested some saboteurs. If at any place, a mobile tower owner or any other outlet feels any threat, police will immediately provide security cover to that place or a person. We will ensure that there’s no telecommunication breakdown in Kashmir.”

In the last three weeks, unidentified guerrillas operating under the banner of “Lashkar-e-Islam” have asked the vendors---retailers as well as franchises--- in Sopore and other North Kashmir towns to freeze all telecommunication signals and recharge of mobile telephones. They set the deadline of seven days and immediately thereafter unleashed a reign of terror on the defaulters. While as two persons associated with the mobile telephony were shot dead, at least five others sustained injuries in these attacks.

Subsequently, the unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior Jamaat-e-Islami and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat activist in Sopore township.

According to the highly placed sources in J&K Police Headquarters, DGP would hold a press conference on Saturday or Sunday and directly blame the local Hizbul Mujahideen cadres of Sopore for causing harassment to the mobile service vendors. He would claim that all the three civilians in Sopore area had been killed by Hizbul Mujahideen.

Sources revealed that DGP could name the Hizb militants like the dreaded Qayoom Najjar, Imtiyaz Kandoo, Naveed, Muz Maulvi, Meraj Halwai, Tariq of Handwara and two more from Palhalan and hold them responsible for the recent acts of terror. He would claim that the Jamaat activist Sheikh Altaf-ur-Rehman had been shot dead by a Sopore-based militant of Hizbul Mujhaideen Imtiyaz Kandoo.

However, Geelani has held the “Indian secret agencies” responsible for the chain of harassment and fatal attacks. On Wednesday, Geelani said in a statement that the Indian secret agencies were trying to create confusion among the separatists with sinister machinations in social media: “They are not hidden from us and if their poisonous thinking becomes the reason for any other killing, we will be left with no other option to expose them”.

In another statement on Thursday, Geelani said: “Whether it is the figures of the sacrifices or the matter of the election boycott, Sopore has set an example and it has become a role model for the freedom lovers. Sopore area has always been the matter of concern for the policymakers of India so, this time they have hatched a deep conspiracy against this region and they want to terrorise the people with the fake organizations and want to spread anarchy here”.

Geelani asserted that organisations like Taliban and ISIS did not exist in Sopore or any other part of Kashmir and alleged that the government agencies were circulating fake threat posters and harassing the mobile telephone and cable TV operators only to defame the Kashmiris’ “freedom struggle”.

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Jamaat-Hurriyat functionary gunned down in Sopore

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Jun 9: A prominent separatist activist, who belonged to a Jamaat-e-Islami family and held a position in Syed Ali Shah Geelani-led Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Kashmir valley’s hub of the militancy in Sopore on Tuesday.

Informed sources told State Times that in the afternoon, when 45-year-old Sheikh Altaf-ur-Rehman of Iqbal Nagar, Sopore, was returning from Sub District Hospital (SDH) Sopore, he was ambushed by unidentified gunmen on Noorbagh Road. He was critically hit in his head and chest. Residents rushed him to the nearby SDH where doctors declared him “brought dead”. He seemed to have died on the spot.

Deputy Inspector General of Police in North Kashmir, Gareeb Das told State Times that Police Station of Sopore registered a murder case and started the investigation even as Sheikh’s funeral rites were conducted amid pro-Azadi slogans. He said that around 800 people participated in the Namaaz-e-Janazah. DIG said that five 9 mm shots had been fired upon Sheikh but it was not immediately clear whether the assassins used an automatic pistol or a higher calibre gun. He said that 9 mm rounds could be fired from different makes of the weapons.

It is four years after the Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith chief Maulana Showkat’s assassination in an IED blast in Maisuma area of Srinagar that a prominent separatist activist has been eliminated in a guerrilla action in Kashmir valley. Sheikh’s death in the broad daylight shootout came after a chain of guerrilla strikes which left two civilians dead and five more injured in Sopore.

Working as Medical Assistant, Sheikh was a regular State government employee. Coming from a prominent Jamaat-e-Islami family, Sheikh was a member of the ‘Shoora’ (Executive Committee) of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat which has Geelani as its founder-Chairman. His father Mohammad Yousuf Sheikh is Ameer-e-Halqa of Jamaat-e-Islami in Sopore.

Sheikh Altaf-ur-Rehman’s elder brother Sheikh Abdul Rauf had died in an incident of cross-firing after an IED blast outside Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar in the year 2000. He was a Ph. D. scholar with Aligarh Muslim University. Sheikh Altaf was one of the most prominent separatist activists, owing allegiance to Geelani’s organisation, in Sopore. He had been arrested, detained and released over a dozen times in the last 20 years. He had been also detained under Public Safety Act as many as four times.

Sheikh’s assassination is remarkable in the sense that it is for the first time in the last over 10 years that a prominent anti-Indian and pro-Pakistan separatist functionary has been shot dead by the unidentified gunmen.

While as no militant outfit claimed responsibility, Hizbul Mujahideen “Supreme Commander” and United Jihad Council chief Syed Salah-ud-din and Chairman of the radical faction of Hurriyat Conference and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, condemned Sheikh’s killing in separate statements. Both alleged that it was a handiwork of the “Indian secret agencies”. They paid tributes to Sheikh and asserted that his assassination would not deter the separatist leaders from pursuing the goal of “freedom from India”.

Geelani attributed Sheikh’s assassination directly to the “counter-terrorists” proposed by the Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar last month. He reminded that Parrikar had spoken of India’s plan to neutralise terrorism with terrorism. He called for a protest shutdown in Baramulla district on Wednesday.

Security forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police did not issue any statement on Sheikh’s killing or in reaction to Geelani’s allegation. However, DGP K.Rajendra Kumar was quoted by a local news agency to have said that the Police would unravel the truth. DIG Das refused to comment on Geelani’s allegation.

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Omar calls PDP-BJP coalition a government of U-turns and surrenders

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Jun 8: On completion of its first 100 days in office, National Conference President and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday dismissed the PDP-BJP coalition as “a government of U-turns and surrenders”, claiming that it had failed on all fronts.

Coming out of its hibernation with the release of an exhaustive report on the performance of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference marked the regime’s first milestone with a Press conference by Omar Abdullah. Omar declined to take questions on Afzal Guru’s execution with the argument that it could “rub salt over the old wounds”, but he asserted cogently that his Kashmir successor, PDP, had made abject surrenders before the Centre.

In reply to a question, Omar alleged that the Mufti government’s ostensible drive against encroachment of the forest land in Jammu was a brazen case of “discrimination” as the campaign was restricted only to the Muslim-dominated areas. He said he would welcome a genuine anti-encroachment campaign if it would have been initiated and carried out without the considerations of the caste, creed and colour.

 Over the reports of ‘saffornisation’ of the bureaucracy, Omar contended: “This issue pertains to the Chief Minister as the chief secretary has to take consent of the chief Minister who heads the GAD”. He claimed that GAD had not issued or withdrawn the order of giving respect to the State flag, alongside the National flag, without the mandatory approval of the State’s Chief Minister.

“Over AFSPA revocation, the PDP used to raise its pitch earlier but now it is completely mute. PDP-BJP’s agenda of alliance talks about the revocation of AFSPA, but no such measures have been taken and rather the state government stands divested of the right to even talk about AFSPA, which is unprecedented. Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed continues to evade questions of AFSPA at official events and press interactions,” he said.

As regards the PDP’s claim that the Indian Constitution’s Aricle 370, that gives special status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir, would survive all odds, Omar referred to the BJP national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi’s May 26^th statement. In her statement, Ms Lekhi had asserted that the BJP was committed to its election-time promise of abrogation of Article 370.

Over the dialogue with Pakistan, Omar said: “Contrary to its previous claims, PDP now has surrendered its position over the issue and that BJP at present has been maintaining that terror and talks can’t go together”.

“Over the return of the power projects from NHPC, the NC Working President said, “In a brazen U-Turn, PDP voted against the resolution pertaining to return of power projects when National Conference introduced it in legislative council”

Over new recruitment policy, Omar maintained that in PDP’s Year of Youth, the first gift to the youth has made the youth wish and pray there are no more gifts. “The government’s draconian, suppressive tendencies have been an open secret from the very first week of its tenure. Besides protesting flood victims and traders, our employees too have been at the receiving end of the government’s batons,” he said.

Over what he termed the inordinate delay in rehabilitation of the flood victims, Omar said, “The sufferers have been let down by the government that foisted elections on them in the midst of devastation. Now the new government has demonstrated a complete lack of political will to start the dignified compensation and rehabilitation of the flood victims. The Finance Ministry has again suddenly run out of ideas and the CM has little to offer on his whirlwind chopper tours.”

“The alliance continued to be viewed with doubt and suspicion in both regions of the state. There is widespread discontent on frequent U-Turns and surrenders on political stands that had been taken earlier. There is mistrust and the ambiguity from the government of various key-issues has led to an increase in incidents of provocation and friction,” Omar added.

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After 'Lashkar-e-Islam', posters of 'Tehreek-e-Talibaan J&K' appear in Sopore

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, June 5: Handwritten posters threatening fuel pump operators against selling petrol to Police and security forces have mysteriously appeared on walls in the much terrorised Sopore township in Northern Kashmir on Friday.

Civilian sources as well as officials said that the handwritten and Xeroxed posters in Urdu, issued under purported seal and banner of hitherto unknown guerrilla group "Tehreek-e-Talibaan Jammu and Kashmir" were spotted at several places in Batpora, Armpora and Bus Stand area in the apple town early in the morning on Friday.

The posters asked the Muslims to be aware of the "conspiracies" and maintain "purely Islamic environment" around their surroundings.

In the fresh posters, fuel station owners have been warned against providing petrol and diesel to the vehicles of Police and the Indian armed forces. "People indulging in trade and consumption of drugs and tranquilisers", television cable operators and the landlords providing accommodation to Bihari labourers besides the gamblers, and those who use their own premises for gambling, have been given the deadline of "only seven days" to abandon these practices.

"Dont take us lightly. When we will come to act, we will award same kind of punishment to the defaulters which has been given out to the mobile phone tower landlords", warned the posters.

Meanwhile, 'Lashkar-e-Islam', the guerrilla group that has forced shutdown of mobile telephony in parts of Northern and Southern Kashmir with a chain of attacks---in which 2 persons were shit dead and five more left injured, has confronted the hardline Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani with questions over the latter's act of calling the group as a "creation of the Indian intelligence agencies".

Lashkar-e-Islam challenged Geelani's assertion and advised him to be careful in choosing his words and taking decisions with regard to the "genuineness" of the State's guerrilla groups. It claimed to be a genuine militant outfit fighting for Kashmir's separation from "Indian occupation". It claimed that the ban on mobile telephony had been imposed "only after it became clear that a large number of the "Mujahideen" had been got arrested and killed only with the help of mobile phones.

In a significantly related development, senior separatist leader Shakeel Bakhshi has also questioned the top separatists' wisdom of labelling the guerilla groups like LEI as the front of the Indian intelligence agencies. He has called for a thorough investigation onto the genuineness of the guerrilla groups.

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Out of 25 Police districts in J&K, 11 are militancy-free

In its 26th year, militancy shrinks to only Sopore-Handwara and Pulwama-Awanipore belts

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Jun 4: Armed insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir has passed through thick and thin and completed the quarter of a century but, according to an official document prepared by the State government, it has fallen to the lowest ebb exactly in its 25th year in 2014. On January 1, 2015, as many as 11 Police districts in the State were completely militancy-free even as 90 militants were “active” in the Valley and 15 more in Jammu division.

Compiled by the State Crime Records Bureau of the J&K Crime Branch, an organisation of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, and released by Director General of Police K. Rajendra Kumar last fortnight, ‘Crime Gazette 2014’ claims that by the end of 2014, total number of the “active militants” had reduced to the all-time low of 105. Significantly, it records, that not a single “active militants” exists in Kashmir’s Budgam, Ganderbal and Bandipore districts besides Jammu division’s Jammu, Udhampur, Reasi, Poonch, Doda and Samba districts.

While as there has been no militancy in the twin districts of Kargil and Leh in Ladakh, all the remaining 23 Police districts---13 in Kashmir and 10 in Jammu---do still figure as “Disturbed”, the fundamental requirement for enforcement of the Jammu and Kashmir State Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFSPA]. With the exception of BJP and Congress, besides some insignificant outfits based in Jammu, all the mainstream political parties have been pleading for revocation of AFSPA in a competition with the separatist and the militant groups and conglomerates.

According to the Crime Gazette, in the entire Central Kashmir there are just 2 listed and wanted militants---both in Srinagar district. There is none in Budgam and Ganderbal. However, there are 247 “overground workers”, or "OGWs" (supporters of separatist insurgency who organise protests, demonstrations besides arson and stone-pelting but do not wield weapons or indulge in subversive activities).  Of them, 104 are in Srinagar, 76 in Budgam and 67 in Ganderbal district.

Crime Gazette says there were total of 832 OGWs in Kashmir---247 in Central Kashmir, 361 in North Kashmir and 224 in South Kashmir. In Jammu division, there were 772 OGWs---maximum of 210 in Reasi, 141 in Doda, 133 in Kishtwar but not a single in Jammu and Samba districts.

With the 11 districts being “militancy-free”, there are 10 such districts where the total number of the “active militants” is less than 10 in each district---Kulgam (9), Kupwara (7), Pulwama (6), Baramulla (5), Srinagar (2) and Anantnag (2) in Kashmir and Rajouri (5), Ramban (4), Kishtwar (3) and Kathua (3) in Jammu. In other words, total number of the militants in these 10 districts is 46.

Crime Gazette makes it clear that the armed insurgency has finally shrunk to the Valley’s Sopore-Handwara belt (in North Kashmir) and Pulwama-Awantipore belt (in South Kashmir). Interestingly, with the exception of Sopore and Langet segment, which returned Congress candidate Ab Rashid and independent Engineer Rashid respectively in the Assembly elections of 2014, all the elected MLAs from the two militant hotbeds belong to the ruling coalition. While as Peoples Conference represents Handwara, PDP represents Sangrama, Rafiabad, Pattan, Pulwama, Rajpora, Pampore and Tral.

The PDP-BJP-PC coalition’s MLAs from Handwara (Sajjad Lone), Sangrama (Basharat Bukhari), Pattan (Imran Raza Ansari) and Rajpora (Haseeb Drabu) are also Cabinet Ministers in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government.

The document lists Awantipore (18), Sopore (17), Handwara (13) and Shopian (11) as the State’s most militant-infested Police districts.

Crime Gazette claims that on January 1, 2015, there were 18 listed and wanted militants in Awantipore Police District. It includes Pampore and Tral belts of South Kashmir where the Army’s counterinsurgency ‘Victor Force’ has also its headquarters. Together with 6 active militants of Pulwama district and 11 more of Shopian district, this Jamaat-e-Islami-dominated strip continues to be the Valley’s topmost flashpoint. Even in the current year, maximum incidents, including killings, have been reported from here.

Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed’s home district of Anantnag in South Kashmir had just 2 “active militants” in the beginning of the current year.

The government documents have identified Awantipore, Tral, Pampore, Pulwama and Shopian in South Kashmir as the top flashpoints besides Sopore and Palhalan (Pattan) in North Kashmir.

Senior Police officials told State Times that the “active militants” include around a dozen of the foreigners (Pakistani nationals) who often die in the security forces’ encounters but maintain a level with continued infiltration from across the LoC.

“However, the most disturbing information is the fact that at least 18 young boys have been indoctrinated and inducted into their ranks by the commanders of LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen in Pulwama district in the last 4 months”, said an official. He pointed out that the two Policemen, who were posted in the security of a BJP leader and the PDP leader and R&B Minister Altaf Bukhari but deserted and joined the militant ranks recently, were also residents of the same area of South Kashmir.

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Under pressure from Delhi, Mufti government to restore mobile phone services in 2 days

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Jun 2: Under pressure from the Government of India, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-BJP government has finally come out of the slumber and assured the vendors, the operators and the subscribers that it would ensure restoration of all mobile telephony services in Kashmir valley “within two days”.

“We have devised a strategy and we are sure that all the non-operational BTSs will be back to the business within two days. All the modalities have been finalised in a high level meeting Chaired by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today”, said a well-placed governmental source. He declined to share the details but asserted that all the frozen towers and services recharge outlets would be made operational “within the next two days.

However, sources said that Police protection would be provided to everybody receptive to the offer of “area security” from the government.  As already reported in this newspaper, out of 12,000, as many as 3,000 networking sites of BSNL, Aircel, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have been rendered non-functional in Kashmir valley since May 23. The threats, and the attacks to enforce the same, have purportedly come out from the militant group ‘Lashkar-e-Islami. While as two persons associated with the mobile telephony operations have been killed, five others have been left injured.

An official release on Tuesday said that a high level meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, reviewed the security and law and order situation. Commissioner-Secretary Home R.K. Goel, DGP K. Rajendra Kumar and the CM’s Principal Secretary B.B. Byas attended the meeting. 

“Taking strong note of the disruption of cellular networks in various parts of the Valley, Mufti Sayeed observed that people cannot be pushed into Stone Age as modern-day functioning in Government, Banking, Tourism, Education, and other vital sectors, in particular, old-age pension and e-transfer of insurance claims and compensation to flood-affected victims are totally dependent on internet connectivity. He said cellular networks have become lifeline as these services are availed by all sections of the society”, said the Press release.

It added: “During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed DGP to take all possible steps to thwart any attempt to disrupt cellular networks in Valley and provide security to mobile tower installations and owners. He said the miscreants cannot be allowed to take law into their own hands and police should deal sternly with such elements. The Chief Minister also directed the DGP to ensure that uninterrupted mobile network connectivity is provided to the people”.

Meanwhile, Pakistan-based militant conglomerate United Jihad Council has claimed, in response to an appeal from the senior Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, that ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ was “a terrorist organisation floated and funded by the Indian intelligence agencies”.  Geelani has expressed satisfaction over the UJC “clarification” and added that Hurriyat had got substantial evidences to establish that the ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’ was “the creation of the Indian secret agencies”.

“According to these evidences, it looks that this operation is directly looked over by the Indian home ministry and the state administration and even the state police has been deliberately left ignorant in this regard like in the case of Al-Faran group creation and how this organization at first kidnapped and then killed the five innocent European tourists and the state administration and the police were totally unaware about it. While today’s operation is meant to damage the economic and social setup of the Kashmir, according to the reports received by the Huriyat, the pro-freedom leaders can be the target of this operation,” Geelani said in a statement.

For the first time, Geelani (G) statement has alleged that the creator of the counter-insurgent group Ikhwanul Muslimoon, “who is today at the highest position in the policy makers in New Delhi and is second authority after the Narender Modi” is the architect of the group ‘Lashkar-e-Islam’. It is an insinuation to the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

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