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Kashmir Police Chief says funds fuelled unrest, AFSPA to stay

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Srinagar, India, Jan 4, IRNA -- Police chief of Kashmir alleged that separatist support and funds had a hand in promoting summer unrest, and defended the use of the AFSPA saying the law will stay.

Kuldeep Khoda, the director general of the police (DGP) said that senior Hurriyat leader, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat’s remarks absolving the forces of the assassinations of Kashmiri leaders Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Ghami Lone were a welcome, if belated, admission of the truth, and that the “killers and the victims were lying in the same graveyard.”

The state police chief alleged that separatist support and funds had a hand in promoting stone-pelting, and defended the use of the AFSPA, saying that the law was necessary “till even a single militant remains active in the state.”

Talking to reporters after a press conference in Jammu, the DGP described Prof Ghani’s remarks at a seminar yesterday as “better late than never.”

“It is encouraging that separatist leaders now admit that the security forces were not involved in the assassination of Molvi Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Ghani Lone,” the DGP said.

At a Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) seminar yesterday on the anniversary of the assassination of its ideologue, Prof Abdul Ahad Wani, Prof Ghani had said that it was time to speak the truth that figures like the slain law professor, Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Faroo and Abdul Ghani Bhat had been killed by “our own people.”

This was the first occasion since the outbreak of insurgency in Kashmir in 1989 that any separatist leader had dared to make an assertion contrary to the generally circulated contention that these separatist figures had been eliminated by the arms of the Indian state.

Earlier, referring to the situation of the past year, which he said had been extremely bad, the DGP said that separatist leaders’ support and funding had had a direct role in promoting stone-pelting.

“The police has definite proof of this,” he said.

The state police chief said that situation in the state had taken a turn for the worse after the Machil fake encounter.

“The law and order situation deteriorated immediately, stone-pelting began and killings intensified,” he said.

“The police and other law enforcing agencies performed well to control the situation, and there is no law and order problem today,” he said.

The DGP said that the past year of 2010 had witnessed a 50 per cent increase in violent demonstrations, with 25171 first information reports (FIRs) having been registered, which was five per cent more than the 24006 FIRs registered for similar incidents in 2009.

In a round-up of militancy-related incidents and fatalities in the past decade, the DGP said that 5054 civilians had been killed during this period, while the figure for fatalities among militants stood at 8987, and that of the security forces at 2647.

He said that 949 militants had surrendered before authorities during the past decade.

The DGP threw his full weight behind continuing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), saying that the law was necessary till even a single militant remained active in the state.

“The law has nothing to do with increase or decrease in militancy. There can be no justification for repealing this act so long as militant activities occur,” he said.

“The AFSPA will stay as long as militancy exists in the state,” he said.