'Revoking AFSPA will aid Kashmir terror groups'

[ILLUMINATO]

Indian Army chief Gen VK Singh has opposed the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from parts of Jammu and Kashmir anytime soon, saying this could result in the "emergence of terror sanctuaries and safe havens".



He said one summer of peace does not mean
normalcy has returned to
the troubled border state and warned that if the contentious special powers are withdrawn, the army would feel constrained in operating against terror groups if the situation deteriorates.


"The partial revocation of AFSPA will result in the emergence of sanctuaries and safe havens for terrorists while the army will be constrained from operating against them," Singh said in an interview in the coming issue of the defence ministry's official organ Sainik Samachar.

He also noted that there were issues regarding the "safety" of army personnel, company operating bases, units, installations, headquarters located in non-AFSPA areas and protection of convoys moving through them.

"One should not view the security situation of reduced violence in one summer, but allow consolidation of the gains made, before taking a call on revocation of AFSPA," he said to a question on why the army is opposing the partial withdrawal of the law from Jammu and Kashmir.

"Just one summer of peace does not mean normalcy," he added.

Singh also pointed out that though the army did not operate in some parts of Kashmir now, it could be called upon to do so if required in those areas too since AFSPA is still applicable.

"If AFSPA is revoked, the army will not have the legal protection to operate even if the situation goes bad. Diluting AFSPA in any form will be, therefore, detrimental to the national interest," he said.

Placing the blame for the violence in Jammu and Kashmir at the doorstep of Pakistan, the army chief said the state has been affected by the neighbouring country-sponsored proxy war over the last two decades.

"Though quantum of violence has decreased, the terror infrastructure in Pakistan and ***************** Kashmir remains intact. The support of Pakistan establishment in aiding and abetting the terrorists continues unabated," he said.

"The security forces are combating heavily armed and trained terrorists. The operational flexibility of the troops will be severely restricted and efforts to further stabilise and consolidate the situation in Jammu and Kashmir will receive a setback," he added.

The issue of partial withdrawal of AFSPA was raised by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah in the middle of last year, citing the decreasing violence in some districts of the state. He also received support from Union home minister P Chidambaram.

However, defence minister AK Antony and the armed forces have opposed the move tooth and nail, resulting in the central and the state governments agreeing to discuss the issue further before a decision is taken on the revocation of the law that some human rights activists dub as "draconian".

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India...id-Kashmir-terror-groups/Article1-789770.aspx

 

[Tshering22]

Revoking AFSPA will aid Kashmir terror groups

Of course it will. I am against revoking AFSPA in J&K and it should remain so. Omar is an idiot and thinks that he can rule the state like Hari Singh did with all the property to be under his thumb. Pleased to see that IA didn't buckle to the pressure of the weak and suicidal central government. .

They're talking about revoking AFSPA where there is need for it while AFSPA is enforced where there is absolutely no need for infantry troops to be present :Manipur. We need special forces, experts in counter-terrorism and counter-guerilla warfare to be stationed here in NE states. Not infantry men trained to fight conventional armies.

However, defence minister AK Antony and the armed forces have opposed the move tooth and nail,

Nonsense! Anthony was flat downed by human rights militant-lovers and it was the call of J&K military commander Lt. Gen. Hasnain and General VK Singh to say a NO to it before it died out. Once again, Centre trying to gain cheap political mileage through lies.

some human rights activists dub as "draconian".

The first rule of AFSPA should be to rid these miserables off our combat operation regions. That would put an end to half the jihad being fought. If we had adopted a PLA-style method in 90s, this peace would have come 10 years ago and by now J&K would have become prosperous like Punjab and peaceful like Himachal Pradesh.

 

[livingdead]

Well Army Chief should not make public statements contradicting the chief minister's position.
Also I am in favour of repeal of AFSPA from kashmir, because there is no more terror attack happening there.

The army was there to turn the tide and break the back of insurgency which it has done. The more it stays on, the more problem it will create than solve.

 

[T90TankGuy]

while i am against repealing the act . i do understand where Omar is coming from , he wants to reflect the aspirations of the youth of Kashmir . they see militants attacks have fallen in numbers, and want a return to normalcy as soon as possible.

 

[Tshering22]

Well Army Chief should not make public statements contradicting the chief minister's position.
Also I am in favour of repeal of AFSPA from kashmir, because there is no more terror attack happening there.

You really don't know the nature of problem in J&K do you? Omar is an idiotic politician who thinks in terms of how much influence he can spread as a neta. That clown has no clue about what problems the state is having. He will be the first to run away to where you stay right now, if something went wrong overnight. And our soldiers will have to slug it out all over again.

Please for heaven's sake, try to gain more knowledge about what is going on in J&K before being apologetic.

The army was there to turn the tide and break the back of insurgency which it has done. The more it stays on, the more problem it will create than solve.

Refer to the last line of my above paragraph. You seriously need to research on J&K problem.

 

[BATMAN]

Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine

BY THE time you read this, the life and death of 22- year-old Bilal Ahmed Sheikh would have become a mere statistic: Civilian No. 63 killed by the security forces since 11 June — the day another boy, 17-year-old Tufail, breathed his last, sparking an intifada-like uprising in Kashmir.

Not a single police or paramilitary officer has been arrested for civilian deaths. FIRs against “unknown persons” have been registered, except for one case in Sopore against the CRPF for unprovoked firing. A commission of inquiry is looking into the first 17 deaths. The home minister has admitted, “At least a dozen killings may have been unprovoked.”

It has been more than 24 hours since Habibullah Tiblu was brought to SKIMS hospital with two bullets inside him, but the operation room is not yet available — it is already handling hundreds of injuries from stone, pellet gun, teargas shell and bullet. No compensation has been paid to injured civilians. Twenty-six men in SHMS hospital have just been told that they will never see again. Zubaid Khan, a Class 12 student from Khanyar, is one. He had just stepped out of his home when a stone hurled by the CRPF smashed into his eye.

So far, 800 policemen have been paid compensation of Rs. 5,000 each for injuries. “I fell down after a stone hit my head, and needed five stitches,” says an injured deputy superintendent of police. “Yet I instructed my men not to fire.”

According to Srinagar SP(South) Irshad Ahmed, more than 400 stone-pelters are currently in jail. Civil rights groups put that number at 1,500 in the entire district. Rafiqa Begum is holding back the sobs as she stares at piles of ******* apples. On 20 August, she says, her 16-year-old son Omar Saleem was picked up while selling fruits in Rambagh. “He left school so he could support the family. If they keep him in jail, we will be destroyed,” she says.

There is no way yet to verify exactly how many of those arrested have been released or booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) — and that is part of the chaos Kashmir has descended into.

And now, in an eerie flashback to the 1990s, the official crackdown has begun.

Around 3 pm on 19 August, a 500- strong contingent of security forces surrounded Bemina locality in south Srinagar. All the male residents were asked to assemble in the field outside the local mosque. “They behaved with us like the army earlier behaved with militants,” says Imtiaz Ahmed. The police identified 42 men as stone-pelters. “They randomly called out to anyone wearing good clothes and Nike shoes,” says Ahmed. “They said whoever wants azadi, we will burn their house down.”

Shameema Begum was at home when they barged into her house, smashed glass windows, pulled out her 60-year-old father and her husband Bashir Ahmad Lone. “Where is Brett Lee?” the police asked them raining lathis. “Give us Brett Lee and we will let you go,” they said.

That’s a nickname for Shameema Begum’s 11-year-old son Danish, a lean, fair boy who plays cricket and dreams of becoming Sachin Tendulkar. But for the forces, Danish is an active stone-pelter.

Of the 42 men picked up, seven are still in police custody. Danish’s father Bashir, a daily wager, is one of them. A few years ago, a fracture disabled Bashir’s right hand. “They will only release him in exchange for my son,” says Begum. Srinagar SP(South) Irshad Ahmad denies this. “Bashir is in custody because he is also a stonepelter and a top motivator,” he told TEHELKA.Begum says the police have declared a Rs. 1 lakh reward on Danish. And that Waseem, a barber from UP and Begum’s tenant, was offered money to reveal the boy’s whereabouts. “If we take him to the police,” Begum asks, “how do we know what they’ll do with him?” That’s why an 11-year-old boy is in hiding. If the crackdown continues, boys like him may not return overground.

If you mapped the cycle of violence, of how the funeral procession of two victims through Sumbal could lead to another death in 24 hours, of why 21-year-old Parvez lying in a hospital bed, his hand Parvez lying in a hospital bed, his hand split by a tear-gas shell, insists he will pelt stones even if that means being martyred, some frightening realities would emerge.

“The resentment is not against us, it is against the institution, the Government of India,” Senior Superintendent of Police Ashiq Bukhari told TEHELKA. “We are the visible face of that. The people violate and we react. Under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), even a peaceful protest with pro-freedom slogans cannot be allowed. The quantum of force is up to the officer on the ground. There is no rule book. Yes, he is human and could make a wrong decision. For that, there is a commission of inquiry.”

It is almost as if 63 people have been killed in 74 days to keep alive the floundering idea of State. It is in this context that stories of Kashmiris serving in the J&K police become poignant. They are on the frontlines of this battle between citizen and State, representing an idea of nationhood they may not believe in themselves. In conversations with policemen across Srinagar city, it becomes evident that for most “Hindustan ki wardi” (uniform) is a necessary evil, a source of livelihood in a state parched for jobs. There is a sense of being trapped between Kashmiri identity and allegiance to India, and almost every constable TEHELKA spoke to said he wouldn’t let his children join the police.

This is a relatively new trend. Until the mid-1990s, the local police were not involved in counter-insurgency operations. In 1993, the police rose in revolt against the army and senior police officials after a fellow policeman was tortured and killed in custody. The army stormed the police HQ with tanks. In 1994, a Special Operations Group was formed to assist the army in counter-insurgency, policemen from Jammu and Poonch were in a majority but now, more than ever before, the Kashmir policeman finds himself looked upon as an agent of India.

THE POLICE say the sense of alienation that began in the summer uprising of 2008 has peaked. Since the last two months, they fear going back to their villages as many have faced social boycott. Constables, sub-inspectors, and even officers of the rank of SHO, now carry private IDs — press, PDP, even Hurriyat — to escape being lynched.

TEHELKA has learnt from a credible police source that as of 19 August, 1,800 J&K policemen have applied for voluntary retirement. While it is not clear how many of them want to opt out due to the current situation, it is a sign of the growing anguish.

A week ago, a constable was leaving his post in civvies when the CRPF caught him. He was beaten for violating curfew even before he could show his police ID card. On the way back to his post, he was beaten by a mob for being in the police. “We belong neither here nor there,” he says. “We are serving the Indian forces like Indians did in the British army.”

Two weeks ago, Sheikh Rauf, an NGO worker, saw a CRPF soldier abusing Kashmiris. A police officer asked him to stop but he didn’t. Finally, the policeman got up and screamed, “I’ll shoot you with your own gun.”

So while the CRPF is supposed to aid the local police, the reverse is true. “We are better trained for this job than the CRPF, but because they are more in number, they do what they want,” says an SHO.

This is leading to a strange dynamic on the ground. When head constable Mohammed Ramzan tried to stop the CRPF from firing, he says he was held by the neck and beaten. “I only allow myself to keep a lathi, a helmet and a shield,” he says. “I don’t keep a gun in hand, otherwise I might be compelled to fire. If they protest without destroying government property, then I am with them. I too want azadi.”

“I’m in the police but my brothers are pelting stones in my village,” says a constable from the Trar region. Last year, his brother was picked up from home, shown to be in possession of arms, booked under the PSA and jailed for six months. On a trip home last month, villagers began to pressurise him to leave the police.

“I’m worried that my family will become a target. I am considering resigning. They are alone in the village,” he says. “I am a Kashmiri. Writing my nationality as Indian is only an administrative compulsion. If I weren’t in uniform, I’d be pelting stones,” he says.

Pakistan govt. need to extend support to the tortured children of Kashmir.

I have a question to those Pakistanis who call bhartis as friend.. please tell me are Kashmiris not your brothers first?

Does oppressed Kashmiris don't deserve some favor/support from Pakistan?

 

[ILLUMINATO]

Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine



Pakistan govt. need to extend support to the tortured children of Kashmir.

I have a question to those Pakistanis who call bhartis as friend.. please tell me are Kashmiris not your brothers first?

Does oppressed Kashmiris don't deserve some favor/support from Pakistan?

More of your such brothers would be killed,if they don't submit to us.JO ukhar sakte ho ukhar lo.

 

[harpoon]

Well Army Chief should not make public statements contradicting the chief minister's position.
Also I am in favour of repeal of AFSPA from kashmir, because there is no more terror attack happening there.

The army was there to turn the tide and break the back of insurgency which it has done. The more it stays on, the more problem it will create than solve.

The terror attacks are down bcs their main backers are engaged somewhere else and also its a bad time for Jihadis globally, not to mention the millions that we spent in securing our borders.

Anyways inspite of Army's objections if the Govt repeals AFSPA, the Army along with CRPF should withdraw to their barracks and let J&K police sort out the mess by themselves.

 

[joekrish]

All though I think it was a little early to pull down AFSPA, the army will have great problems to impose it again if there are problems in the future.

 

[WAR-rior]

guyz, AFSPA is bullshit in today's scenario. one of the biggest reason why kashmiris are so away from india. its time to build trust n respect. revoking AFSPA will only make things b8r. fear of infiltration is only a myth in todays time as LOC is well defended. also, we should ask da army to be on the borders if thats da fear. wass there use inside th kasmir mainland?

 

[Hulk]

AFSPA has to go maybe we can hold on for one year.

 

[BATMAN]

More of your such brothers would be killed,if they don't submit to us.JO ukhar sakte ho ukhar lo.

If some Pakistani don't mind in calling murderer bhartis as friends, than their is no harm in calling occupied victims as brothers.

While, what is happening right now is clearly written in the report, i posted above.

 

[BATMAN]

The terror attacks are down bcs their main backers are engaged somewhere else and also its a bad time for Jihadis globally, not to mention the millions that we spent in securing our borders.

Anyways inspite of Army's objections if the Govt repeals AFSPA, the Army along with CRPF should withdraw to their barracks and let J&K police sort out the mess by themselves.

How stubborn you are? read the facts in the article i posted above.

There never was any thing like terrorist, they are sons of the land, and they want revenge because your 500K army have ruined their families.

 

[arcane]

How stubborn you are? read the facts in the article i posted above.

There never was any thing like terrorist, they are sons of the land, and they want revenge because your 500K army have ruined their families.

who came first??? terrorists, or the army????/ in 1989, who came first???

 

[WAR-rior]

who came first??? terrorists, or the army????/ in 1989, who came first???

its complicated friend. for that u need to know the complete kashmir history. right from 200AD.