The Hindu : 'His fate was sealed at Dubai meet'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 23, 2002

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National

'His fate was sealed at Dubai meet'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI May. 22. A section of the Indian intelligence establishment has sufficient reason to discern the direct involvement of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in the assassination of the Hurriyat leader, Abdul Gani Lone. This judgment has apparently been reached on the basis of preliminary inputs from the Srinagar-based officials.

According to information available with the intelligence agencies, the decision to get rid of Abdul Gani Lone was made at a meeting of the "United Jehad Council'' on May 17, four days before the killing. The meeting was "attended by two senior ISI officers,'' besides representatives "of Pakistan-based and sponsored terrorist organisations such as the Laskhar-e-Taiba, Hizb-ul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Badr.''

The decision to liquidate Lone was passed on to the cadres in Srinagar and they promptly carried out the mission. It is pointed out that on March 18 a Pakistan-based militant "commander,'' Arif Jahangir, had threatened that the "mujahideen'' would go after the Hurriyat leaders who dared to think in terms of the electoral process.

Intelligence officials are confident that they would be able to put together the clinching evidence once the investigation in to the Lone murder gets under way. But, for now, a conclusion is firming up that the assassination could not have been carried without clearance from the ISI brass.

The Kashmir watchers are convinced that Lone's fate was probably sealed when he took an uncompromisingly independent stand at a Dubai conference in April third week. The gathering was attended by Kashmiri leaders from all over the world and included Lone and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq from India, Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan from Pakistan, and Nazir Geelani, Gulam Nabi Fai, and Mustaq Geelani, all based in the U.S. and the U.K.

It is being recalled that at the conference, Lone had stridently argued that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were tired of militancy and those who did not live and suffer in Kashmir should stop romanticising "militancy''; according to him, the people of Kashmir wanted peace, though not necessary participation in the election process. The ISI officers who were monitoring the meeting are believed to have tried arm-twisting Lone into changing his line, but reportedly remained firm. "He signed his death warrant in Dubai,'' said an official.

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