The Hindu : Will Mufti's talks end the blame game?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 28, 2002

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Will Mufti's talks end the blame game?

By Our New Delhi Bureau

New Delhi Nov. 27. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, is expected to be here in the next few days. He will be meeting the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. The interaction, it is hoped, would put an end to the pointless "blame game'' between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress over the State Government's policy of providing a "healing touch,'' including release of "militants.''

After two days of a full-scale verbal standoff between the BJP and the Congress spokespersons, there is a realisation here that the controversy should not be allowed to get out of hand. The BJP has accused the Congress of being "soft'' on terrorism, and the Congress, in turn, has dragged in the names of individual intelligence officers, who should have remained nameless.

It is being realised that the situation is not being helped as the Jammu and Kashmir police officers too are getting involved in this game and leaking selective information to curry favour with new political masters. Responsible officials are aghast that the political partisans have opted to posit a cause-and-effect relationship between the release of some "militants'' and the recent spurt in terrorist activities. In fact, intelligence and defence officials suggest that if anything, the spurt has to do with the continued infiltration across the Line of Control.

Defence Ministry sources cite many instances of the Army foiling infiltration attempts this month; but, seasoned observers believe that for every foiled attempt, the possibility of many other militants having successfully sneaked into our side of the LoC cannot be ruled out.

Available information indicates the reactivation of training camps in the Sialkot sector (across the Jammu region), and in areas across from the Kupwara sector. Intelligence inputs confirm that the ISI is again arranging funds and training for as many as 60 activists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. There is also credible information to infer that the ISI is facilitating joint LeT-Jaish-e-Mohammad camps in Manshera and Astor, while joint LeT- Hizb-ul- Mujahideen camps are operational in Chilas and Gilgit. Other assorted camps are being provisioned and armed in and around Miridah, Skardu and Swat.

It is generally conceded — as the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, suggested in his speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday — that the attack on the Raghunath temple in Jammu and other related terrorist action could in no way be directly linked with the Mufti Government's decision to release a few militants. In fact, Mr. Advani himself speculated "whether it is a mere coincidence that this spate of terrorist incidents has occurred just when the process of government formation has been completed in Pakistan. This spurt of violence also follows the release by the Government of Pakistan of the LeT chief, Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed.'' Yet an avoidable political controversy has got generated.

The BJP finds itself in a bind because its partner, National Conference, has decided to argue that the "healing touch'' policy is "demoralising'' the security forces.

If the Abdullahs' argument is conceded, then any political initiative can be discredited as harmful to the morale of the security forces. And the BJP cannot resist the temptation of scoring a few political points against the Congress, especially in the context of next month's electoral battle in Gujarat.

During his visit, the Mufti would want to achieve a meeting of minds between New Delhi and Srinagar. The Chief Minister would expect some kind of a respite from the BJP.

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