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J&K ceasefire decision on Thursday

The government has decided to hold the crucial Cabinet Committee on Security meeting on Thursday to decide whether it will further extend the ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir or withdraw it, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan indicated on Monday.

"In all likelihood, the meeting will be held on Thursday, unless something more important crops up," Mahajan told rediff.com. (A source in the prime minister's office, however, said the meeting could be held on Wednesday.)

The meeting on Sunday was initially postponed by three hours and later called off.

The government maintained that as the Disaster Management Group meeting chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee "spilled over" the CCS meeting, to decide the fate of the ceasefire in J&K, had to be postponed.

However, media reports emphasised that the meeting had to be called off because Union ministers, including Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes, were opposed to the ceasefire extension, following their perception that it had only aggravated violence in J&K.

While Advani and Fernandes declined to say anything about the issue of the ceasefire to reporters, Mahajan pointed out that "the media is, barring exceptional cases, not briefed about proceedings in the CCS. When there is no briefing, the media writes (about the CCS proceedings) giving unnamed sources. I don't want to comment on it."

As indicated by media reports, protagonists and antagonists of the J&K ceasefire are divided. The hardliners -- those who don't want it to be extended because they feel that it has backfired causing additional problems to the countryl; the peaceniks, who support the prime minister's contention that for "peace to be given a chance" (these are Vajpayee's words), the ceasefire must have yet another extension.

Advani, who has consistently advocated a pro-active policy against militants in J&K, is not enamoured of the prime minister's peace initiatives when the militants have appeared to have grown bolder and stepped up activities of suicide attacks on camps of security forces in the state.

Recent militant attacks on civilians, including Sikhs in Jammu and Kashmir, have convinced the 'hardliner' Advani camp that it has turned out to be a wasted effort which should be substituted with tough and determined anti-militant measures.

However, peaceniks represented by Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, National Security advisor Brajesh Mishra, Chief of Army Staff General S Padmanabhan and Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande have argued in favour of an extension, underlining that it should not be withdrawn because militants are continuing violent activities in the state.

However, Vajpayee's telling reporters in Bombay on Saturday that media reports about the ceasefire poised to receive an imminent extension was incorrect, appears to have galvanised the hardliner camp.

"After all, lives of our citizens have to be protected and militants have to be given a stern message that they cannot get away with murder and that they will have to pay for their desperation," said senior BJP leader Jagdish Prasad Mathur, perceived as an Advani camp-follower.

Even BJP chief Bangaru Laxman, who is the prime minister's handpicked leader, recently expressed concern over the continued loss of innocent lives in J&K and stated that the question of extending the ceasefire had to be minutely reviewed, carefully weighing all pros and cons.

Besides, Fernandes, who had supported the extension, does not appear to be so sure now after meeting relatives of the massacre of Sikhs in Jammu.

That hardliners have received substantial support in their quest for ending the ceasefire in J&K is a hard reality which Vajpayee has to weigh carefully before taking a decision.

The Kashmir ceasefire: The complete coverage

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