Tuesday, May 20, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
When contacted by The Hindu for confirmation of reports that the Government had placed curbs on the activities of the Hizb in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the Interior Minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, replied in the affirmative. "Yes, curbs have been imposed on activities of all militant outfits and they cannot carry out any activities either from the soil of Pakistan or PoK," he said. Asked if that meant a ban on the Hizb, Mr. Hayat said, "yes, there is a ban". Last week, the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, had been banned from entering PoK. However, it is not clear when Islamabad decided to move against the Hizb. On April 30 when the U.S. State Department chose to place the Hizb along with four other organisations in Pakistan on its list of terrorist outfits, Pakistan had said it would not be guided by the American action. A spokesman for the Hizb, Salim Hashmi, however, said that neither he nor any of the leaders of his outfit had any information about the latest decision. "We are not a banned outfit. The Hizb is an outfit consisting of only Kashmiris. We have no militant camps in PoK. We are waging an indigenous struggle against the Indian forces," he said. On Sunday, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief, Syed Salahuddin, said in Rawalpindi that his organisation would continue its jehad (holy war) and that no pressure, international or from Pakistani authorities, would be accepted in this regard. Talking to presspersons after a function organised to pay tributes to the `martyrs' in Kashmir, he said Pakistan and India had agreed to hold negotiations over the Kashmir issue but that it would not have any impact on the activities of the mujahideen (holy warriors). Accusing India of trying to malign the mujahideen through a propaganda campaign, he said the just struggle was equated with terrorism and charges of infiltration were hurled at Pakistan. The international community, however, had realised the factual position and rejected the propaganda. Still, anyone having doubts about the activities of the mujahideen was welcome to visit Kashmir to see if any training camp for terrorism existed, he said. Mr. Salahuddin said the morale of India had been lowered and it was struggling to wriggle out of the dispute. There were three parties to the dispute — India, Pakistan and the mujahideen — he claimed and said the issue could be resolved only if all those groups agreed. Bilateral talks could not resolve the dispute. He expressed the fear that Pakistan might be pressured to crack down on the activities of the mujahideen but said it would never be accepted. The supreme council of the "freedom fighters" would run its activities independently. In a related development, the PoK Prime Minister, Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, has expressed support for dividing the State between Hindu and Muslim majority areas and maintained that an independent Kashmir was not a viable alternative. Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Khan endorsed the `Chenab formula' under which Hindu-majority areas could go to India and the Muslim majority areas of Kashmir amalgamated with Pakistan. Mr. Hayat said he strongly opposed the idea of an independent Kashmir because a tiny state surrounded by India, China and Pakistan could neither defend itself nor guarantee its sovereignty.
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