Both these statements are in juxtaposition with the elegant assertions of Robert Blackwill, former U S envoy to New Delhi. He has made it clear that as long as the Pakistani elite, especially its military elite, continues the ‘mission’ that it had for half a century, ‘ no permanent peace between the two countries is possible’.

Since 1947, no POK leader of his (Khan’s) stature has so far dared to announce that an ‘independent country for Kashmiris is impossible and it would remain a dream…’ It was he and other Muslim leaders of his ilk who had kick-started militancy by earmarking funds for the ‘liberation’ of Kashmir in 1988.

Khan, the Muslim Conference supremo, has even advocated for a ‘return to 1947 position’ in Jammu and Kashmir, that includes monarchy. ‘Let it be Maharaja’s rule. It is a lesser evil… it is better than the whole region being on fire’, he told an interviewer in New Delhi, where he was recently for the first time after partition, for an interaction on Kashmir, organised by a think tank; Observer Research Foundation .He has also favoured a discussion and frank talks with China with regard to territory (forming part of undivided Jammu and Kashmir) that Pakistan had ceded to that country in a border agreement.

“We ourselves are in trouble. Our politics is in trouble. Many other Muslim countries are also in trouble, not just India”, Khan has said.

What is more pragmatic is his frank observation—free from any hang over effects—that ‘Kashmiri militancy has come to an end and the only remaining problem was outsiders supporting it’. His statement is clearly borne out from the fact that it is Pakistan Army which has been pushing ultras into the valley, to the chagrin of its people. Recently, a group of foreign mercenaries, including Lashkar-e-Toiba, sneaked into the valley through Uri sector, with the help of the Pakistan Army. Even Al Qaeda elements find their way into Kashmir. And why not when ISI is there to help them?

The octogenarian leader, who had occupied the hot seat of ‘President’ and ‘Prime Minister’ of so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ at different times, gave vent to his hushed up feelings when he asserted, “ An independent and sovereign Muslim Jammu and Kashmir is not possible… and the ethnic character of Kashmir had always favoured ‘multi-religious’ society”.

In fact, what Khan has revealed, is the outcome of people-to-people contact, initiated largely since the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road was opened this year after partition, as a part of the confidence-building measures.

Umer Farooq, during his sojourn in POK and Pakistan, leading a delegation of his Hurriyat, had told a Senate Standing Committee in Islamabad in June that several ‘outside elements’ were trying to sabotage the ‘Kashmiri freedom struggle by inciting violence.’

The Pakistan Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights have just submitted their report on two-hour interaction with Umer Farooq and his associates saying that the separatists’ conglomerate had accepted that a ‘large number of Kashmiris’ do not support its view point.

This is now exactly why Khan has sought to gear up courage and tell the world that Pakistan and other Islamic countries were hit by militancy, originating from Madrasas.

However, these views have been strongly condemned by Shabab-e-Milli, a youth wing of the hard-core Jamaat-e-Islami. The activists have staged demonstrations in Pakistan, in protest against Khan’s outcry in Delhi that ‘jihad in Kashmir is terrorism’. What will be the response of JKLF Chief Yaseen Malik and others, will be keenly watched.

The Senate Committee report is quite significant. It is for the first time the Muslim fundamentalists in Kashmir and Pakistan have come to realise that the path (of violence) they had chosen is slippery ahead.

They are not going to attain their ‘goal’, due to change in global scenario after 9-11 terror attack in the US. What has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan in its aftermath needs no elaboration. What is in the offing in Iran is for anyone to predict. In a way, even India has buckled under the US pressure to side with US vis-à-vis Iran, which has been a friendly country. The decision taken by India is not in tune with its foreign policy, particularly the non-alignment policy.

Mirwaiz, while in Pakistan, had opposed to support militancy in Kashmir, as wished by Pakistan, saying ‘the international community will never support violence or an armed struggle in Kashmir’. But unfortunately, he was opposed in his contention by senators, Khurshid Ahmed and Maulana Samiul Haq, both from the Mutahida Majlis Amal.

Sadly enough, Gen Musharraf supports ‘militant’ groups in Kashmir on the one hand and the on-going peace process with India on the other. Pakistan’s elite Army, overtly or covertly, continues to bolster Taliban in Afghanistan, to regain ‘strategic depth’, in difference to ‘dictates’ of the US policy.

Blackwill has spoken the truth that unless Pakistani military accepts that India will not secede any part of Jammu and Kashmir, India-Pakistan peace is not possible. He does not see any positive signs in the Pakistani Army to suggest that it is for peace with India. It is hard to draw such a conclusion, he feels. That he is right is clear from the way Pakistan is asking India to reduce its troops in the militancy-prone areas of Kupwara and Baramulla.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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