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STATES: JAMMU & KASHMIR

Double Deception

Ikhwanis—militants who surrendered and became pro-government—are being pressured by their former comrades to return to the life of the gun

By Surinder Singh Oberoi in Srinagar

Sitting in his well-guarded house, Papa Kishtwari fidgets with his walking stick. "Scared? No, I can take care of myself," he says, glancing at a World War II Bren gun and a Chinese-made pistol that form part of his extensive personal armoury. Behind the bravado, however, there is a hint of worry on his face. Kishtwari, 45, a top pro-government militant leader, lives with the fear that he could be killed any day by his own "boys". "There is every possibility that militants will use the same boys to assassinate me" he shudders.

And Kishtwari has every reason to feel threatened. On May 7, a top pro-government militant Riaz Ahmed was beheaded in Handwara. Earlier, on April 30, two surrendered militants Ghulam Mohammed Lone and Abdul Majeed, working as army informers, had been similarly beheaded by militants of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen at Pathushahi, Lolab.

Kishtwari knows the ikhwanis-a term used to describe a militant who has surrendered and turned pro-government-are being punished for being traitors. Faced with a choice between death and government sops, hundreds of militants had given up arms. Between 1994 and 1998, the pro-government militants became an extremely potent weapon in counter-insurgency campaigns in Kashmir. They helped security forces identify wanted militants and dealt out their own brand of justice with impunity. Many even contested the 1996 parliamentary elections.

After the security forces eased their operations following the cease-fire declared by the Union Government on November 26, 2000, the militants, however, gained the upperhand once again. And in order to put the state's intelligence network into disarray, they have killed more than 150 pro-Government militants and police informers. Apparently many ikhwanis had reconverted, become double agents, and were helping the militant groups to identify and target comrades who were aiding the security forces.

Police intelligence sources reveal that more than 500 men, either working with pro-government militants or ikhwanis themselves, have gone back to mujahideen ranks in Kashmir. Some of them have escaped from security camps with arms and ammunition and rejoined their former colleagues.

"The release of Mushtaq Zargar and Maulana Azhar in exchange for 150-odd passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane last year was a major setback," admits a BSF officer. "Both men have reactivated their militant organisations in urban areas," he adds. Echoing similar views is Ashok Suri, dg of Kashmir Police, who concedes that the number of those rejoining militancy is growing. "The pressure from the militants on ikhwanis is increasing,'' he says.

The police managed to get a breakthrough on April 28 with the arrest of Zahid Salim alias Boiya, a former Hizb militant who had surrendered and was working for the security forces. A pistol and a grenade were reportedly recovered from Boiya while he was trying to escape on a motorcycle after killing another former militant at Jawahar Nagar, a residential colony in Srinagar. On interrogation, Boiya revealed the names of 40 men ostensibly working with the security troops but actually aiding the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Hizb. In the subsequent crackdown the police arrested half a dozen men who were getting instructions on pagers.

But the damage was done. "There were more than 8,000 militants working for different security agencies after surrendering," says Mukhtiar Ahmed, an ikhwani working with the Kashmir Police as a special police officer. "Today only 700 remain."

MetroScape

Delhi Cinema:
"Flicks Down Under"

Mumbai Restaurant:
Karma

Kolkata Restaurant:
Teej

The Madhya Pradesh governor orders a CBI inquiry into a land allotment by the chief minister to the Nai Duniya group, kicking off a constitutional crisis. INDIA TODAY Special Correspondent Neeraj Mishra reports in
Conflict Of Interest.