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Encounters!

On September 19, 1996, the state government declared the HUA an unlawful organisation under the J&K Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1983 and banned its activities. The notification said that it indulged in acts of armed violence with the help of foreign militants and foreign funds. It also said that it had spread fundamentalist militancy to secede the state of Jammu & Kashmir from the union of India and merge it with Pakistan, among other acts.

Arif Hussain alias Abdullah was arrested by the SOG of the Kashmir police on March 15, 1997, and later killed in custody, alleged Harkat. The police however claimed that Arif was Harkat's financial chief and was killed in an encounter on March 17, 1997.

The HUA acting chief, Peer Baba alias Ghazi, a Pakistani national and his deputy, Abdul Muteeb, also a Pakistani from Sind, were in a meeting on May 6, 1997, in the Idgah area of Srinagar, with leaders of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen. The house was surrounded by the BSF. In the encounter that followed, both Ghazi and Muteeb were killed while the others managed to escape.

In Doda, the outfit's Dawood Manhas had been very active since 1992. The police was on his trail. It was alleged that he was involved in Barshala massacre of 15 Hindus on January 15, 1996, and eight killings at Kalmadi in June, 1996. In the Gaudali forests of Doda district, on May 10, 1997, in an encounter with the police's SOG, Dawood and his associate, Qari Zarar, were killed.

Sananullah alias Naeem Khalid was a Pakistani from Karachi. Before being inducted into Kashmir in 1991, he had operated in Afghanistan. In Kashmir, he was soon made the Harkat commander in the Anantnag district. Later, he was made acting chief for Kashmir. In an encounter with the security forces on June 29, 1997, he was killed.

Belonging to Doda, Mohd Salim Beg was trained in Pakistan which he visited a number of times. In 1996, he was made the Harkat chief for the Jammu area. While returning from his latest visit to Pakistan, he was arrested by the police on June 8, 1997.

Aijaz Ahmed Bhat alias Aazam, belonging to Srinagar, was made acting chief after Nayeem Khalid was killed. In an encounter with the SOG of the Kashmir police in Pandachh village near Ganderbed on August 9, 1997, he was killed. Two of his colleagues, Tanvir Ahmed and Abdus Samad, were also killed.

In the summer of 1997, credible reports were received by Intelligence that the Harkat-ul-Ansar, on directions of the ISI, had sent out its trusted activists to different areas in India to locate sympathetic individuals who could be entrusted with the responsibility of forming a small nucleus to be activated when required. First, only the Moslem majority areas in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra were selected. The twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad of Andhra Pradesh were also selected for special attention by the HUA. There were credible reports that, with cover and assistance provided by the Pakistan embassy in Nepal, the HUA operatives were able to create safe havens in Kathmandu. Kashmir militants could reach Kathmandu as Indian nationals without much difficulty. They could fly out to Pakistan. They could also re-enter India through selected points on the Indo-Nepalese border. In Nepal, these operatives did not face any problem in securing unlimited funds largely through an influential Nepalese Moslem politician, Mirza Dilshad Beg, it was alleged.

For quite some time the United States had been feeling concerned about terrorist activities on American soil and the world over. After the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma city in April, 1995, attention was focused on the federal administration and the Congress. In 1996, the Congress enacted the Anti-Terrorism And Effective Death Penalty Act 1996. The law provides for imprisonment upto 10 years for those who violate the law by supporting the terrorist groups notified under this law. The law prohibits "any contribution to a foreign terrorist organisation regardless of the intended purpose, unless the contribution is limited to medicine or religious materials." It also asks US financial institutions to block the funds of the designated foreign terrorist organisations or their agents over which they have possession of or control. They will be subject to civil penalties and possible criminal prosecution if they fail to conform to the law and regulations.

The Sri Lankan government and many others had complained to the US administration to declare LTTE and many others the world over as terrorist organisations.

Continued...                                                                                ...Back

Excerpted from Kashmir Underground by Sati Sahni, 1999, Har-Anand Publications, 520 pages, Rs 595, with the publisher's permission.

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