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| Habibullah may be a force multiplier for peace process | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu,October 23 :-Wajahat Habibullah is back to Kashmir after a gap of 16 years as he has been appointed Chief Information Commissioner.His appointment is being construed as part of the centre's plan of reviving back channel diplomacy in Kashmir so that the stage was set for Delhi-separatists' talks.
Wajahat Habibullah has demonstrated his skill as a negotiator in 1993 when he was instrumental, as the then Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, in resolving the crisis triggered by the siege of the historic Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar. Nearly 40 militants had laid a siege on the shrine and held 170 civilians as hostages. It was only Habibullah who maintained links with the militants and separatists for ending the siege. His patience succeeded in motivating the militants to lift the siege without shedding a drop of blood. The credit was then given to Wajahat for ensuring that no damage was done to the shrine.
He held the fort when the senior functionaries of the Army and the paramilitary forces were favouring a military action against the militants, holed up inside the shrine. Wajahat was the only senior civil functionary who refused to issue orders for any Army crackdown on the militants. Had he given orders for a crackdown it would have been a repeat of the Golden Temple mishap. Had Wajahat not been injured along with the then Governor's adviser Lt.Gen M.A.Zaki in a road accident in Srinagar the 1968 IAS batch officer would have reached superannuation in Srinagar four years ago.
Wajahat had been asked to hold parleys with the separatists; especially with those belonging to the APHC in 2002.Though those parleys did not set the Jehlum on fire Wajahat succeeded in developing links with the APHC leaders. He is trusted and respected by politicians belonging to the separatists and the mainstream camps. That he loves Kashmir and its people is evident from his feelings he has expressed in his book entitled "My Kashmir." In this book he has given vent to his feelings about people in Kashmir. Since he was posted as IAS officer to Kashmir in 1969 his love for Kashmiris was but natural because by the time he left Srinagar he had spent about 24 years in the state where he functioned as Subdivisional Magistrate,Deputy Commissioner and the Divisional Commissioner.
Informed sources said that Wajahat Habibullah has accepted the new challenging task of building bridges between the centre and the separatists. He may not be the part of the team that is to get engaged in back channel diplomacy. But he will play a key role otherwise he would not have accepted Chief Information Commissioner's post in Jammu and Kashmir which is almost a demotion for him as he had been working as Chief Information Commissioner of India.
When the Government of India appointed K.C. Pant, a former union Minister, as a negotiator the Kashmiri separarists had refused to talk to him. Against this these very separatists had no reservation when Wajahat started holding talks with them. Though he could not take the dialogue process to its logical conclusion he had succeeded in kindling an urge among the separatists for holding talks with Delhi. Whether this time Wajahat succeeds or not depends on the support he gets from the centre and on the events that shape themselves within the state.
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