Mufti Govt ridicules Defence Minister, says creating Ikhwan is abetment to mass murder

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, May 24: Days after the senior BJP leader and union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's suggestion that the  Narendra Modi government should use terrorists to neutralize the terrorists----evoking a deluge of criticism from almost all the opposition parties, media and civil society groups----PDP's leader and Minister of Education Naeem Akhtar on Sunday ruled out the revival of counterinsurgent group Ikhwanul Muslimoon in Jammu and Kashmir. Akhtar is also the Mufti Sayeed government's designated spokesperson.

“Whosoever is dishing out such absurd views, is grossly ignorant about both----the ground realities in Kashmir and the law,” Mr Akhtar said in a statement without naming Mr Parrikar.

Mr Akhtar said in a landmark judgment on the issue of Salwa Judam---the government-sponsored gunmen used by Chattisgarh government against Maoists---the Supreme Court in April 2008, declared all such activities illegal and unconstitutional. He said the Supreme Court has, in it judgment, made it clear that arms can’t be given to a civilian to kill and “anybody doing so will be an abettor of the offence under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (murder)".

“So if somebody has made any statement on the issue, he must be completely ignorant about the law,” Mr Akhtar said in probably the PDP's first affront to the coalition partner BJP. He claimed that
PDP had earned its credibility among the masses by rising against and holding back such practices.

“Everybody knows how in 2002, the PDP-led coalition government not only ended the infamous Ikhwan culture in Kashmir but also wound up the dreaded Task Force and the people in every nook and corner of the State at that time acknowledged the substantial relief on the security front,” he said and added that except PDP all other political parties and groups in Kashmir including NC and Congress had ruthlessly used the government-gunmen for political purposes.

“It was NC which for the first time provided political space to Ikhwanis in 1996 by sending them to the legislature and Congress was not far behind in institutionalizing Ikhwan culture by offering some noted Ikhwanis space in the party’s rank and file,” he said and added that not going too far, even a cursory look at the list of candidates of 2014 assembly elections would make it clear which party had most of the Ikhwanis as its frontline cadres.

Significantly, Mr Akhtar spared the BJP and did not mention the names of the one-time Ikhwanis and counter-insurgents who had contested and won, or lost, the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 20 years. Interestingly, at least one of the BJP's MLAs from Kishtwar, having counterinsurgency background, is a Minister in Mufti's government. Even in 2002, Mufti had inducted one of former Ikhwanis, who was then an independent MLA from Bandipore, as a Minister in his PDP-Congress coalition government. Same person, now in Congress, was returned from the same segment in 2014. Even Congress party’s candidates Hilal Shah, who contested against Mufti from Anantnag, was known for his counterinsurgency links.

To begin with, Ikhwan's political arm Awami League had contested Lok Sabha elections of 1996, which were boycotted by National Conference, but lost in all three constituencies in the Valley. Later, it also fielded its candidates in the Assembly elections of 1996. Only one of them---AL's and Ikhwan's founder Kukka Parray---was declared elected, from Sonawari. Subsequently, Parray's ace colleague and Ikhwan's co-founder Javaid Hussain Shah broke away from the Army-sponsored group. On joining NC, then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah got him elected as MLC.

Armed forces crushed militancy with the help of Ikhwanis and counter-insurgents of Muslim Mujahideen in 1994-1997 period in large-scale violence and bloodletting. More than 3,000 militants are believed to have been killed with the support of these local counter-insurgents who also kidnapped and killed hundreds of unarmed supporters of the separatist movement, particularly those of Jamaat-e-Islami. These groupes ceased to exist and operate after most of their cadres, including the Ikhwan founders Kukka Parray and Javaid Shah, were eliminated by the militants.

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