"Chuck out" of Kashmir, your role is over: Lone tells foreign militants

Nazir Masoodi

Srinagar: In his first clear message to militants after December 13 attack on Parliament, All Parties Hurriyat Conference executive member Abdul Gani Lone has asked the foreign militants to "chuck out" of Kashmir and allow a peaceful resolution of the issue. Lone also called upon the local people to shun the path of violence as it has now no role to play.

Abdul Gani Lone

In an interview to The Indian Express, Lone said the presence of foreigners and the attacks on Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and Parliament has harmed the Kashmir movement. "Non-Kashmiri militants are creating problems for us. Their presence is a distortion of Kashmir's freedom struggle. They should leave Kashmir. Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba are non-Kashmiri groups and they should chuck out. We have been condemning the attacks on J&K Assembly and Indian Parliament and we do not approve of such type of acts,'' Lone said.

This is for the first time when Lone has questioned the very relevance of local militancy. "Militants have done their part as far as bringing Kashmir issue from the cold storage (is concerned). Now is the turn of a diplomatic and political approach. We must take stock of the overall situation. Now it (militancy) is becoming a disadvantage for the movement. Violence has now no place. We expect militants should also take note of this fact,'' Lone said.

Interestingly, Lone was the first Kashmiri separatist leader to welcome Taliban and foreign militants in mid nineties. Today he tries to justify this saying that "that was the time when they were the part of local organisations. Now it is beating us back. I am a politician and take review of whole situation. Politics is a game of possibilities.''

He said the foreign militants are not coming for the liberation of Kashmir but for their own agenda. "They are not for the Azadi. They are for international Jehad and they have their own global agenda,'' he said.

The Hurriyat leader, however, blamed the government for the present turmoil. According to him, it is the atrocities by the security forces that is pushing Kashmiri youth to the wall. "Militancy is unfortunate, but the gun has been foisted on us. India is responsible for the presence of foreign militants as well,'' he said.

"It was not ISI but Indian security forces for militancy. They are committing large scale atrocities which forces our youth to take recourse to gun. It seems as if they (security forces) are paid for it."

He also accused the Centre of not allowing them to visit Pakistan for the fear of conceding influence to Hurriyat if it succeeded in convincing "the boys across" to pave way for a peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue.

Lone admitted that crackdown on Jehadi groups in Pakistan will demoralise locals but maintained that it will not end the problem. He even discarded the notion of cross border terrorism saying it is Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). "People from both the parts of Kashmir want an independent Kashmir and they don't recognise the LoC and border,'' he said.

Also:
Profile of All Party Hurriyat Conference