news details |
|
|
| Mainstream political leaders vie with one another for appeasing militants and Islamabad | | | Srinagar, July 29 :- Leaders of mainstream political
parties in the Kashmir valley vie with one another as far as appeasement of militants,separatists
and the Pakistan establishment was concerned.
A senior Congress leader,Mr Ghulam Rasool Kar,has
gone a step ahead of those who have been shouting
loud against the security forces during any incident
of human rights violations but remain mute spectators
whenever militants kill innocent civilians.Mr Kar,during a recent public rally in remote Trehgam
area in Kupwara district,praised Maqbool Butt,founder
President of the JKLF who was executed in Tihar jail
in 1984 on charge of having murdered an
intelligence official.
While showering praises on Maqbool Butt Mr Kar
alleged that had Mr Muzaffar Hussain Baig,a leading
constitutional lawyer and Deputy Chief
Minister,pursued the mercy petition submitted to the
President of India vigorously the President would have accepted the petition.
And Mr Baig was quick to react saying that the
allegations levelled against him by Mr Kar were
"rubbish." The Deputy Chief Minister said that Mr Kar
had gone old and lost track of the sequence of events
which had been the reason for "accusing me of a
mistake which I had not committed."
In fact during the last one year the leaders of the
Congress,the PDP and the National Conference seem to
be vying with another in their attempt at keeping in
good humour militants,Kashmiri separatists and the
establishment in Pakistan.
And it is in this context that Mr Kar did not miss
to shower praises on Gen. Musharraf and Pakistan.
The trend was set by the PDP leadership which
adopted soft postures towards militants when it
campaigned for opening of dialogue channels with the
rebels and demanded suitable rehabilitation of
militants.And when the 2002 Assembly poll notification
was issued
by the Election Commission the PDP
leadership raised the demand for reopening of
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for traffic.
Prior to the installation of the PDP-Congress
coalition Government the National Conference patron
and the then Chief Minister,Dr Farooq
Abdullah,repeatedly criticised the role of
militants
and Islamabad.
After the election results ,in which the NC lost the
race, the party leadership has realised that Pakistan
bashing had cost the party heavily at the
hustings.Since then the NC leaders too have favoured a
middle path and keep on condemning human rights
violations by the security forces.And these leaders
and those belonging to the PDP and the Congress
remained silent when a student of 11th stadard was
kidnapped by militants at Shopian in south Kashmir
recently and later "slaughtered"him in full public
view.
Political observers are of the opinion that soft
stance adopted by the leaders of mainstream political
parties was the result of two factors.One being the
scare created by militants who have eliminated those
political leaders who were found fulminating against
Jehadis and Pakistan Government.Secondly,these leaders
have realised that the five year old PDP won more than
16 Assembly seats in the Kashmir valley in 2002 and
one Lok Sabha seat,twice,only because it had announced
its support for the rehabilitation of militants,start
of the dialogue procress with Pakistan and involvement
of separatists in talks by Delhi.
Hence both the Congress and the National Conference
try to emulate the PDP as they know that the next
Assembly poll in Jammu and Kashmir is due
in
2008.These observers say that the shift in the stand
of the mainstream political parties had encouraged
separatists who seem to be more defiant in their
attitude than they were a year ago |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
