SRINAGAR, 20 August 2005 — Indian troops yesterday shot dead a Hindu fighting for the biggest separatist rebel group in Kashmir, police said.
They said the militant, gunned down in the southern district of Doda, belonged to the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahedeen.
Police said Uttam Singh was serving as a “sectional commander” for the rebel outfit, whose headquarters are in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, when he was killed in a pre-dawn clash in Gandoh village.
“Singh was one of seven Hindu members of Hizbul active in the district,” a police officer said. Police say a small number of Hindus in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where the economy has been sapped by the 16-year revolt, have joined militant groups because of the money rebel groups pay.
There are a dozen rebel groups fighting New Delhi’s rule in Indian Kashmir. Most of them, including Hizbul, want it to become part of Pakistan.
A couple want independence for Kashmir, held in part by India and Pakistan and claimed in full by both. The scenic region has been the trigger of two of their three wars.
Most Hindus in Kashmir oppose the revolt in the Himalayan territory. A number have been targeted by militants and thousands have fled to other parts of mainly Hindu India since the insurgency erupted in 1989.
As the final word on the change of political guard in Jammu and Kashmir is still awaited from the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, political pundits and rumor mongers seem to have a field day here with all sorts of wild rumors doing the rounds in the local political circles. The latest rumor said that the National Conference (NC) headed by Omar Abdullah was moving fast toward some future alignment with the Congress.
The personal friendship of Omar and Sachin Pilot, the son of the senior Congress leader late Rajesh Pilot, is quoted as the building block for the emerging NC-Congress bonhomie.
“I know nothing about these rumors. We cannot ignore the fact that our party fought the 2002 assembly elections here in alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). We shared seats with the PDP and fielded common candidates to fight the NC. It is very unlikely that we change horses midstream. Let me tell you that the Congress high command does not believe in imposing arrangements on its state units,” said Peerzada Mohammad Syed, the president of the pradesh Congress committee when asked to comment on some news stories which referred to the so-called growing proximity between the Congress and the NC.
The feeding channels for these rumors are provided by the fact that the Congress and the PDP entered into a political agreement after the 2002 elections whereby the PDP would hold the chief minister’s post for the first three years and thereafter the Congress would nominate its choice for the coveted post.
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has to hand over the reins of power to the Congress nominee by November 2005 when he completes his three-year term in office.
Mufti has repeated many times that he would respect the terms of agreement with the Congress and step down making way for the Congress candidate when time comes.
The local Congress leaders have been making fervent appeals to the Congress president for change of guard in the state maintaining that unless the Congress got into the driving seat in Jammu and Kashmir its chances for improving the political lot would remain jeopardized. In the 84-member state legislative assembly the Congress has 20 seats, 5 from the valley and the rest from the Jammu and Ladakh regions of the state.
Local Congress leaders are campaigning for the union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad who has emerged as the strongest and the most favored choice for the chief ministership in the strife-torn state.
While nobody questions Azad’s vast political experience and his proven capacities of leadership, one emotional hiccup is haunting even his strongest supporters.
Though Kashmiri speaking, Azad belongs to the Doda district in the Jammu region and he would be the first non-Kashmiri chief minister of the state since 1947 when Kashmir was freed from the yoke of the autocratic Dogra maharaja’s rule.
