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| Incident worrying for Home Ministry | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, DEC 4: Today’s incident of shooting at Srinagar is bound to give headache to the Union Home Ministry. Throughout the evening there was no reaction from the Ministry about the incident in which a senior Hurriyat leader was shot at and critically wounded in the summer Capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Yet indications are that the security net around separatist brigade would tighten in the days to come.
It seems that the task of issuing initial response to the attack on Fazal Haque Qureshi has been left by the Central Government to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. He has indicated that the peace nicks in Hurriyat bandwagon face real threat of life.
Strangely, this is often far more than what the Hurriayt hawks face. They are safer whether in Government’s preventive custody or confinements of other sorts ordered by the Government from time to time.
The Friday’s incident is particularly worrisome for the Home Ministry here that has taken the initiative of brining separatists to the negotiating table. Qureshi is virtually a lieutenant to his party boss, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Thus, Friday’s incident sends the grim reminder of the shooting down of Mirwaiz Umar’s father, Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq, nearly twenty years ago. The incident had kicked off violent protests though the senior Mirwaiz was slain when he had become a player of sorts in Kashmir perilous politics.
Ever since, the present Mirwaiz moves under a formidable security cordon around him, particularly when he visits Delhi. This is bound to be reviewed now both at Srinagar as also beyond the State Capital in the sense whether he alone needs this or his cohorts as well after today’s incident.
Whatever turn the “threat perception” may take during security reviews, sources say that those talking peace may well be advised to follow tips given by police as also to keep their movements discreet in order to help security forces to protect them. This is more so since the critically injured Hurriyat leader in today’s incident had reportedly spurned offers of allowing armed guards to accompany and protect him. |
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