The Hindu : Pro-democracy voice silenced

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 22, 2002

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National

Pro-democracy voice silenced

By Harish Khare

New Delhi May 21. The daring and fatal attack on Abdul Gani Lone is being seen by Kashmir experts and operatives as a cold-blooded attempt by the militants and their patrons to send a warning to all those individuals and voices which favour peace and democracy in the Valley. Abdul Gani Lone's assassination is bound to cast a shadow on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections later this year. It has already overshadowed the Prime Minister's visit to the State.

Lone was a ``moderate'' among the separatist Hurriyat crowd, and in recent years he had come to strike a bold note of ``Kashmiri nationalism'', much to the annoyance of the pro-Pakistan hard-liners. Lone even had the courage to tell a thing or two to his Pakistani interlocutors and hosts during a recent visit to that country. In and out of Srinagar, he made no secret of his view that the ``guest militants'' were neither relevant nor welcome in the ``struggle.''

He was made to pay a heavy price for his independence. That the pro-Pakistani and pro-struggle elements could visit this retribution on him and that the Indian State with all its massive military presence in the troubled State could not protect him, would have a longterm psychological impact on the Kashmiri populace. The bottom-line of Abdul Gani Lone's assassination is that the most visible pro-peace, pro-dialogue, and pro-democracy voice has been silenced.

``Pathetic incompetence of the Government of India and the State Government. No one will stick his neck out now,'' remarked an intermediary who had been engaging Lone in back channel negotiations. Another official from Srinagar expressed the hope that the Prime Minister's adviser would not dissuade Mr. Vajpayee from visiting Srinagar. ``It is time to show the Indian flag, and the Prime Minister must not cancel his visit,'' he noted.

The Lone murder would tilt the balance in favour of the hard-liners, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. A former intelligence officer put it succinctly: ``All said and done, Lone was a politician; a practitioner in the art of give and take, whereas Geelani is an ideologue, theologian and an uncompromising Muslim Leaguer.''

Though the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah has been quick to apportion blame on Pakistan, it is no secret that his administration was openly contemptuous of Abdul Gani Lone and other moderates in the Hurriyat crowd. The National Conference leadership was extremely uneasy about the back channel negotiations that were being held with Lone and other moderates, with the aim of securing the electoral participation of the Hurriyat (or a new Hurriyat-inspired political party).

Pakistan and the ISI's ubiquitous ``Brigadier Abdullah'' would permit themselves a smile of satisfaction over physical liquidation of a Kashmiri political leader who was carving out an independent space for himself. ``The hand that ordered the `halal' murder of Daniel Pearl and the hand that ordered the public execution of Abdul Gani Lone is one and the same,'' observed a senior intelligence officer who has seen the video of the Pearl murder.

The onus, according one expert, is now on the likes of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Shabir Shah to speak out in defence of the Kashmiri voice and initiative, rather than allow the gun-toting mercenaries to dictate the agenda of the ``Kashmiri struggle.''

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