• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

India likely to free Kashmiri leaders to calm situation

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Srinagar, India, July 26, IRNA -- Government in Indian controlled Kashmir is mulling release of top political leaders, arrested during the ongoing anti-India agitation.

This is as a ‘last ditch attempt’ to cool tempers and end the street rage which shows no signs of abating three months after it began in late April.

Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah after consultation with authorities in New Delhi has decided to review the detention of Hurriyat Conference leaders including head of the hardline faction, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, said official sources.

Geelani along with Shabbir Shah, Yasin Malik, Nayeem Khan and host of other leaders with separatist leanings were arrested and booked under infamous Public Safety Act (PSA) for ‘instigating’ anti-India demonstrations.

PSA allows detention of any person for up to two years without trial.

Sources said that review was undertaken after government exhausted virtually all options to contain the mass rage primarily sparked by the ham-handed approach of the security agencies.

Omar Abdulllah, who rules the state in coalition with the Congress party of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has so far responded to the public protests with excessive force and suppression of political dissent.

At least 22 people, mostly teenagers have been killed in police action and over thousand arrested in past one month alone. Chief Minister’s reliance on police and armed forces to deal with the crisis has only aggravated the situation fueling further public anger and plunging Kashmir valley into turmoil again after a lull of two years.

he ongoing agitation, driven essentially by angry young Kashmiris, has also revived the demands for Kashmir’s independence from India with more intensity, forcing even mainstream pro-India parties to acknowledge the underlying causes of the problem being political in nature.

Even the ruling National Conference during its recent meeting of the Central Working Committee had urged the state government to consider release of all political prisoners.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in his recent visit to New Delhi also admitted that Jammu and Kashmir was not a problem of economics but politics and called upon the central government to start an internal dialogue with diverse political opinion in the state.

Reiterating that Kashmir was not a problem of economics but that of political, Abdullah underlined the need for pursuing the external dialogue process meaning talks with Pakistan and initiating internal talks with diverse political opinion in an inclusive manner.

Analysts believe that government's attempt to initiate a political process by setting free the jailed leaders was a ‘last ditch attempt ‘ to contain the street rage.

The separatist conglomerate led by Geelani has already announced “Quit Kashmir” campaign and this week it issued a new protest calendar and even hinted at launching civil disobedience movement to intensify its stir to end the ‘Indian occupation of Kashmir’.